that's going to be the bigger part of his focus rather than campaign rallies. >> the president will host the leader of sweden today as part of that focus on foreign policy and the war in ukraine. i also think white house aides suggested we'll hear about gun violence yet another fourth of july holiday marred by mass shootings. alex thompson from ax owe, thank you for joining us this morning. thanks to all of you for getting up way too early on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. 15,000 generations of humanity, yet we have evolved not at all. bound like animals to the laws of physics. shamed before the universe. and in all of history only one man has stood to say that he will dictate what is and is not possible in this world. the nathan's famous fourth of

july champion of the world, joey chestnut! >> how is that for an introduction of the all-time greatest joey "jaws" chestnut getting it done again on coney island winning the nathan's hot dog eating contest by putting down, ready for this, 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes. he's gross and he's a champion, jonathan lemire. john, there was a rain delay yesterday. you always wonder how's the rain delay going to affect the pitcher. >> yep. >> how does the rain delay affect a team? boy, he seemed to ride it out. keep that game face on and just again achieve disgusting, disgusting heights again yesterday with 62 hot dogs in ten minutes. his 16th nathan's hot dog eating contest. he's the greatest. >> he's the goat. i refuse to watch the footage of joey chestnut eating these hot dog.

my eyes are closed. that right there, that introduction, that joey chestnut just received, he would like the same introduction. that's mike barnicle. congrats to joey chestnut. my god, let's stop watching this now. >> yeah. it's a 6:00 in the morning. i think we're safe to take this down. safe to say the title is joey's until he gives it up. there were some worthy channelers yesterday. this guy is just a beast. with that we will spare you the footage for the rest of this hour. good morning to you this day after the fourth of july. with us this morning, jonathan lemire and katty kay and claire mccaskill. i will not ask for your analysis of the hot dog eating championship, unless you want to provide it, but how was your fourth of july? i hope you spent it on the lake. >> i did, willie. always thinking of your dad.

he and i have a shared history of working as very young people at the lake. and we had a great, huge family gathering. it was loving chaos all weekend long with grandchildren everywhere. >> sound perfect, exactly the way it ought to be down at the lake of the ozarks. how does the fourth of july look, serious question, from the other side of the pond? >> yeah. not sure how focussed they were on the hot dogs. if they had been, they might have had a little more dispair as they looked across the atlantic. i wished everyone a happy and safe fourth of july. i wish it had been a safer fourth of july. that's the news that travels across the pond again. a spate of mass shootings across the country. fourth of july now the most dangerous day in the american calendar for mass shootings. what a crazy way and terrible way the country celebrates. i wish it was not thus.

such is american gun control at the moment. otherwise, everywhere, chicago, texas, all around the country a spate of mass shootings. otherwise it was pouring with rain here in london. not much of a fourth of july. i did not eat one single hot dog. >> good for you. not even one. forget 62. good for you. yes. we'll talk about those shootings in just a moment. another one overnight. for the white house, it was a celebration yesterday of america's independence day, the barbecue, the concert, the fireworks. president joe biden addressed military members in the crowd. he called the protectors of democracy. >> you are the backbone, the reality of why, who we are. unbreaking, unbending, throughout our history remind us that democracy is never, never, never guaranteed. every generation must fight to

maintain it. must always cherish it, defend it and strengthen it. >> in the evening, the president switched into the role of mc to introduce the night's musical act where he was met with some enthusiasm for his re-election campaign. >> hey, everybody. welcome to your house, the white house. we're just renting. think how music can change moods. music can make us feel better. it's incredible. i thought we had some great, great entertainment here tonight. well, now you're making music to my ears. >> biden 2024 someone yelled there from the crowd at the

white house yesterday. after donald trump, well, he didn't hit the campaign trail on the fourth. the former president spent the holiday on social media, railing against the justice department. in addition to posting this photo of his head superimposed on george washington's body and sharing a post that included the words f joe biden which we blurred out here. trump called for jack smith to be defunded and should be put out to rest before democrats steal another election. donald trump was one of the only republican candidates actually not out campaigning yesterday. ron desantis, doug, tim scott, will hurd made competing appearances in merrimac, new hampshire. former president, mike pence, went to iowa where he took part in a parade in urbandale pitched himself as a better option to donald trump. >> people of iowa, people of america, are ready for a change. i think different times call for different leadership.

in the republican party and in america. we're just absolutely determined to offer our brand of leadership, common sense, conservative values with an emphasis on civility and respect for people of this state. >> so pretty conventional fourth of july campaigning for most of the republican candidates. donald trump posting on social media, making himself into george washington, the obvious distinction there one of many is that george washington was a soldier. donald trump chose not to be one. but what does it say to you about the state of this republican primary that donald trump thinks i can just stay home. i can sit at my golf club and post on social media and that works for me. i don't have to go out and do an event. i don't have to go out and press the flesh and do the things that people feel they need to do to get elected in iowa and new hampshire. >> well, in my opinion, one of the saddest things that's happened in modern politics is the fact that so many candidates don't think it's important to go out and do what we call in

politics retail, which is shaking hands, looking people in the eye, talking to them, answering their questions, that's going away. obviously for donald trump, he is much more comfortable at his very luxurious golf club with his thumbs on a device tweeting obscenities about the sitting president. you know, it's interesting to me when i look at the four pictures that are on the screen right now, you know, i guarantee you that most of america that is looking at this screen right now goes, well, who are those other two guys? >> yeah. >> that's the other thing that's interesting about this. we have a bunch of candidates that really have absolutely no name recognition. they're not going to get name recognition by marching in a small fourth of july parade in new hampshire. that's not going to do it. they're going to have to raise big money in order for anybody to go, who is that? other than say who is it.

donald trump is in a commanding position. think about that, republican party. you have a guy who says f biden on the fourth of july and he's your man. it is unbelievable. >> so many of those second tier republican candidates have issues whether or not they'll qualify for the first debate a month or so away. certain thresholds they have to hit. nikki haley and tim scott will likely get in, chris christie. let's talk about the trump strategy. our friends at axios noted how few events he had despite his bluster about his energy and his robust schedule that's actually not the case. but the trump team has made a calculation, i mean, some of this might be trump's laziness, but beyond that, they made a calculation we don't need to be out there, we can parachute in, have a big event, dominate headlines for days, sit on truth social wishing happy fourth of july and may not participate in

the first debate because he has such a big lead and don't want to elevate the rest. do you see that backfiring or right way to do? >> at the moment there's no moment it's backfiring. his lead is increasing not decreasing. getting a ton of media attention because whatever he does, whether it's being indicted, whether it's tweeting what he tweets or sending out social media posts on the fourth of july, we talk about it. and he gets an enormous amount of attention just through doing that. so, if i was his campaign, i would be saying carry on doing what you're doing. i mean, i guess the only thing to remember is that in december of 2007 barack obama was 20 points behind hillary clinton and there is still time potentially for one of these candidates to breakthrough. one assumes it has to be ron desantis because he's the only one who has the money and some polling and has been consistently second in the polls. so i suppose there is still time

for him to breakthrough. but i don't see any reason that the trump campaign would trade strategies given what they're doing is working so well for them at the moment. >> so claire, let's look at this from the other side. we saw president biden last night at the white house responding to the cheers of 2024. he has a full year from now he'll be getting ready for the democratic convention and the home stretch to try to win re-election. unless something dramatic happens, it's donald trump's to lose at this point despite everything coming down the pike in georgia. more investigations for jack smith. a lot of legal trouble ahead. but if you are joe biden at that event last night, waking up this morning on july 5th, how are you feeling with a year and change to go until election day? >> i think you're feeling pretty good. the big question mark that is looming over the election next year is in what state will the economy be this time next year.

if these infrastructure projects all kick off across the country, joe biden will have a great opportunity to remind everyone that he didn't have 14,000 infrastructure weeks with no results. he actually is fixing bridges and saving lives with highway improvements and water projects and grid projects and more internet in rural areas. he's going to have a lot to talk about. and if those are kicking off, it's going to help the economy stay stable through the election. i think the only thing that joe biden has to worry about really is if there is a blip in the economy and gas prices go up or there is another inflationary spike, then no matter what he does, he's in trouble. >> so jonathan, we know that this is going to be a close election just because national elections are close in this country, even if people have strong feelings about donald trump. there are a lot of people who

still love him, be there with him, or maybe think joe biden is too old. we nou know how this plays out, this will be close and donald trump will play the way we saw him playing yesterday. >> donald trump is who he sand his campaign tactics have not changed at all from 2016 to 2020 to now. you make a great point. 2016 and 2020 deceptive in terms of the electoral count. the battlegrounds were close, 2020 if not quite as close as '16. everybody knows this is a 50/50 country and will be a tight race. in terms of president and the strategy, they're doing two thing. first and foremost, be president. just simply being the commander in chief, focussing on foreign policy next week, heading overseas. getting the job done. to claire's point, rolling out infrastructure projects. that provides a clear contrast to the mess they're seeing on

the republican side. the other half of it, raising money. the next few months the president ramped up his fundraising. there's been concerns it's been sluggish so far. they had trouble particularly with the low dollar donors that point to enthusiasm. those have not rolled in the way the white house would like, at least so far. i think that is a concern as well this idea whether it's voters of color or young voters who might be a little less enthusiastic about the president this time around. maybe it's because of concerns of his age. maybe it's because of things they haven't been able to get across the finish line like the student debt relief program knocked down by the supreme court last week. things on climate change or the like. that's the concern. but democrats will say, look, at the end of the day, particularly if donald trump is the republican on the other side, willie, voters will turn out and turn out to vote against trump as much as voting for biden. >> joe biden had the setbacks at the supreme court last week. now will use those, we believe, as a political cud yule to try to move forward and win back

some votes and say republicans the people they appointed to the supreme court are taking away your rights. the president yesterday also dealing with this spade of shootings in the united states of america. police continue to investigate this morning motive behind the deadly mass shooting first in philadelphia on monday night. officials say the gunman fired seemingly at random, spanning several blocks. five people were killed, ranging in age from 15 to 59. two children were injured, both boys age 2 and 13. they remain stable at a hospital. police say the gunman is a 40-year-old man wearing body armor, armed with a semiautomatic ar-15 style rifle and police scanner and multiple magazines of ammunition. officers managed to take the suspect into custody in that case. yet to be identified publicly and has not been formally charged. philadelphia's mayor urged to pass stronger gun safety legislation during a news

conference yesterday. >> person walking down city street with an ar-style rifle and shooting randomly at people while wearing a bullet proof vest with multiple magazines is disgraceful but all too common situation in america. i was at the independence hall today where they wrote that constitution and the second amendment was never intended to protect this. >> authorities say another man taken into custody on suspicion of picking up a firearm and returning fire at the suspect has been released without charge because he likely acted in self defense. mean while, three people were killed, at least eight others wounded in a mass shooting in texas that happened just minutes before the start of the independence holiday. police say the shooting occurred in the ft. worth neighborhood around 11:47 p.m. on monday. it appears several men fired indiscriminately into a crowd of hundred of people striking adults and children. no arrests have been made yet in that case. a man hunt still under way

in baltimore for the suspect or suspects behind a deadly shooting there over the holiday weekend. the gunfire broke out following a block party on sunday night. two people were killed, including a 20-year-old man and 18-year-old woman identified as aaliyah gonzalez. her family spoke to reporters yesterday. >> she was amazing. she was going to be so big and her star was so bright. >> she was the best sister i could ever ask for. and i miss her so bad. >> in addition to aaliyah gonzalez, 28 others were injured. including 15 minors. authorities asking for the public's help to provide any information after sharing social media videos taken moments before the shooting started. in addition to tracking down those responsible, police also say they're concerned about preparing for possible retaliation in this case.

so, katty kay, you raised it. it seems to happen in the summertime. it seems to happen on the fourth of july unfortunately. but the truth is it happens all the time in this country. you have to sit here the day after the fourth of july and just read a litany of mass shootings of gun violence in this country, some of them with handgun. we don't know the motive in all of them. one at least with an ar-style weapon, a man wearing body armor. a story we have seen way too many times and just loaded down with ammunition, only stopped because the police intervened. >> yeah. i mean, listen to that little boy who just lost his big sister and it still, every single time, it makes you tear up when you hear these stories because it's so unnecessary. it is a choice that america is making. it is america's exceptional problem, right? it doesn't happen anywhere else in the world to the same degree. and we have regulated other things. america has regulated seat belts in cars, which mean that the number of children being killed

in car accidents now is way down, below the number of people being killed in gun accidents. so the american public is on the side of doing something about this once more gun control. but the organs of american government are failing public opinion. they are failing the american people. they are not representing what democracy wants. people want something to be done about this, but there is inaction in government and more people are getting killed in a way that just doesn't happen anywhere else and doesn't need to be happening. this is fixable. other countries have fixed this. >> we'll get an update on the shootings, including from baltimore, where 18-year-old aaliyah gonzalez. that was her family speaking there. meanwhile, the u.s. government is in contact now with russia to discuss potential prisoner swaps, according to a kremlin spokesman yesterday, coming just one day after the u.s. ambassador to russia visited detained "wall street

journal" reporter evan gershkovich. the state department spokesperson declined on tuesday to go into detail, siting the continues work to secure the released of gershkovich and paul whalen. evan was detained in march while on a reporting trip accused of spying which he and the u.s. government and "the wall street journal" adamantly deny. whelan has been held in russia since 2018. let's bring in retired four navy admiral james stavridis. great to see you. what may be happening, back channels behind the scenes, direct diplomacy between the united states and russia to try to secure the release of these two americans and others, by the way. >> i think of the memoir by my good friend current director of the cia bill burns. he called it the back channel.

and it makes a point which is that a lot of diplomacy is actually done best away from the glare of publicity. and certainly hostage exchanges fall into that category. so, point one, this correctly ought to be done without an enormous amount of media speculation about it. point two is i think there is a real chance here russia has a number of goals in the form of individuals in prisons, both in the united states and this is key, willie, and in the prisons of some of our allies because we have given away some of their high value prisoners to them like viktor bout. so we may have to broaden the quid pro quo to convince an ally to let somebody go in this case. third and finally, it shows we can at least have a conversation with the russian federation that

is not part of the war in ukraine. and it's important that we do so. not only for prisoner exchanges like this but, for example, on nuclear arms control and other things that are in the interest of both countries. the ukrainian grain deal is another example of putting things off of the u.s., russia, ukraine track. i'm hopeful. let's keep it quiet. and let's be creative in what we end up negotiating with russian federation here. >> yeah. to your point, the white house certainly staying quiet on this. aides saying they do want to proceed with caution. that this is no sure thing to getting a deal done here and previously they had trouble convincing allies, germany among them, to provide prisoner to russia that they were interested in. put this in context for us. this word of maybe talks coming on, come to a precarious moment for putin or at least a dynamic one. coming just two weeks now off of

the wagner aborted mutiny. talk to us about how you see him navigating this. the prisoner swap, yes, but also trying to figure out what to do with wagner, trying to decide if prigozhin should be able to remain in belarus, real warnings from the ukrainians in recent days that the russians may be trying something at the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. give us your 30,000 foot view of where things are right now. >> putin is the middle of a course called dictator 101. and dictator 101 is a course where you learn that you can be weakened by those often the closest to you. you can be stabbed in the back. he's right when he categorizes it in that way. that's good news for the west. and if he were a stock, i would say putin has lost about 30% of his value, jonathan. he's not broke. he's not a penny stock. he's not being given away, but he is weakened.

what does he do? he rounds up the usual suspects, if you will. uses this opportunity to take out anybody who he sees as a threat. he strengthens the physical protections around moscow. the brigades protecting moscow are taking resources away from the war in ukraine. that's a good thing. but he will do everything he can to strengthen his position to the hostage discussion, he will look at that as a way to demonstrate to the world that he still has -- he still has power. he gave a speech to the shanghai cooperation organization. his group of allies, partners and friends over the weekend in which he tried to convince them that he remains on top of his game. he'll do everything he can to try to do that, not only for the russian population but i think more importantly for him with the larger world that is still kind of swinging between the

west and russia. >> by the way, a russian investigative journalist human rights lawyer were beaten as they went into court yesterday in chechnya, perhaps a signal being sent there to your point. admiral, stay with us. i want your take on the latest amid renewed violence between the israels and palestinians there. plus, iran building drones for russia, china, having a spy base in cuba. are america's foes joining forces? we'll have that conversation with peter binart, a conversation he's writing about "the new york times" today. he joins us next on "morning joe." ♪♪

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israel says it has intercepted five rockets fired from the gaza strip. this just hours after israel wrapped up a two-day large scale military raid in the west bank city of jenin. the latest attack in gaza is raising fears of an escalation of tit for tat violence. let's bring in matt bradley. he is live in jenin in the west bank. matt, what are you seeing there today? >> reporter: yeah, willie. what we're seeing today is a lot different from what we were seeing last night. in this very square, we saw intense and focussed violence right here for hours on end. and today, it's kind of back to normal to whatever that is. there's no such thing as normality here, a day after what we saw last night. you could see yourselves in our report on "nightly news" last night. here it is. for palestinian militants, this was payback.

this security video shows a 20-year-old palestinian ramming pedestrians with his car. he then gets out and tries to stab several people for an armed civilian shoots him dead. the palestinian militant group praised this attack. calling it initial response to israeli attack on the west bank city of jenin where israel launched its largest military operation in the west bank in two decades. killing at least 12 people and pushing thousands more to flee. but palestinian youth are fighting back with rocks, molotov cocktails and small arms. he says the israelis are firing missiles, live ammunition, throwing everything they have. during our interview, israeli forces unexpectedly pushed toward our position to clear the area. israelis are coming into their armored vehicles and in front an armored bulldozer and exchanging fire with the palestinian youth. the city now shrouded in smoke from burning fires and plumes of

tear gas fired by the israelis. israel's operation is aimed at clearing one part of the city, a palestinian refugee camp from what israeli officials say is a persistent military threat. as far as benjamin netanyahu is concerned, this massive two-day raid has been a success. we are completing a mission, israel's prime minister said. we will continue to uproot terrorism. so, as you can see, willie, all of that took place right here just several hours ago last night. now folks here are picking up the pieces. they're cleaning the streets. they're repairing their windows, but given the weight of the tension in this community and in this broader country and among palestinians and israelis, that tension, that violence could return at any time. willie? >> extraordinary report, matt bradley, please be safe there. that's matt bradley. thank you so much. james stavridis is still with us for this conversation. and joining us as well is peter

binart, professor at the city university of new york. peter, good morning to you. i'll start with you. what do you make of what you've seen lately, this latest in generations of escalating violence here. >> the fundamental problem is that palestinians lack the most basic rights. this is a country israel now that has been called an apartheid state and by leading the human rights organizations in the world. human rights watch and amnesty because it holds millions of people without the most basic rights, the right to be a citizen in the country which they live, right to vote for the government that controls their lives. when people are desperate like that, they will take desperate measures. immoral, violent measures but desperate measures because they see no hope. unless there is hope that people can have the basic rights that we take for granted, this violence will continue. >> yeah. admiral, every time there is some kind of violence like this,

of course, you have a whole load of young people watching it. you don't know the long-term impact of watching this violence on them. we have seen an expansion of settlements in the west bank over the course of the last year. we have seen netanyahu facing political problems, legal problems of his own. how much does that play into what is happening at the moment, has been happening this week in jenin? and what could the united states do? what kind of leverage does the biden administration still have? >> to your first point, the accidental terrorist, the accidental gorilla, this is a well-known theory of how these uprising perpetuate. you're absolutely right to put a finger on it. it is a self perpetuating cycle of violence. in terms of what happened here at this moment, because this is the largest set of incursions by the israelis in 20 years. when i was nato commander, i was also in charge of u.s./israeli

military engagement and spent a lot of time studying this. and the israelis often use low-level kinds of incursions. this was not that. this is a very significant, sweep into a highly-sensitive part of the west bank. and to your point, again i agree. part of this is netanyahu and his domestic problems. he knows these kind of actions play very well with the right side of his coalition, which he needs to stay in power. so i don't think you're going to see a sudden pullback from this. this is not mowing the lawn, an expression the israelis use about repetitive incursions. this was a very significant operation. last point, the u.s. does not have a lot of cards to play here of real significance. we're very close to israel obviously, but the israelis

fiercely independent minded in dealing with this issue. they will go their own way here. >> peter, can you speak -- peter, can you speak a little bit about what is going on in the larger context of the middle east and the arab nations vis-a-vis what netanyahu is doing in these palestinian refugee camps. you know, we've seen some efforts by saudi and by uae to try to really knit together what is close to peace as we've seen the middle east. it seems this would really set this back. what do you sense the reaction will be in the rest in the arab world for netanyahu doing this for his own political purposes. >> yes. if i can respectfully disagree that the u.s. has no cards to play. we fund this. we give the israelis $3.8 billion in essentially unconditional military aid a

year. we protect israel at the united nations from any meaningful condemnation. we protect israel from prosecution at the international criminal court. and so, the u.s. has a tremendous amount of leverage here. it's just the biden administration has chosen not to do it to protect palestinian rights. i do think that this will slow the momentum towards normalization with saudi arabia, but in the longer term, even if israel does get what it wants which is normalization with saudi arabia, israel's problem is not with the saudis. it's with its own palestinians that it controls and denies basic human rights. as martin luther king told americans again and again and again, when you hold people under a system of unjust, oppressive violence, they will respond with violence and everyone will suffer. >> so peter, you also have a new piece "the new york times" suggesting the america's foes are joining forces.

you highlight a few examples. cuba is operating a spy base. china is operating a spy base in cuba and over the weekend we had this virtual summit between putin, xi and modi, neither modi or xi endorsed putin's war, bid for power but didn't condemn them either and a lot of warm words. how do we get here? and where do we think this happens? is this a simply global rejection from a significant portion of the globe? rejection of american influence and values? >> my point is actually that ironically america made this happen. that this growing alliance -- this alliance between china and cuba with china now having a spy base in cuba and with russia and iran with iran building drones for russia didn't come about by accident. it partly came about because the u.s. spurned the efforts by cuba and iran to have better relations with us.

they wanted better relations with us. when obama opened to cuba, cuba was very strongly wanting closer economic ties to the united states and to europe. and trump came in in 2019, imposed the toughest sanctions the u.s. had ever put on cuba, threw that economy into chaos and made them desperate for chinese money for which they traded this spy base. the iranians within the iranian nuclear deal also wanted better relations with the u.s., not because they love us, not because they want to become a democracy because they wanted western investment. trump came in, scrapped the deal, imposed tougher sanctions and the u.s. lost any leverage it might have had over the iranian/russia relationship. >> admiral, what's your sense of this china, cuba, iran, you could add a few other countries to that matrix of threats and adversaries of the united states in the way they may be working together and joining forces as peter puts it.

>> i think it's real certainly. it's real in different ways in different capitals. i think one way to think of this from the chinese perspective is they look north at russia, which is failing as a state in so many different ways. it's got a huge, vast land area. russia to the east of the euro mountains. it's the size of the continental united states. it's basically empty. maybe 25 million people live there. but what is there? oil, gas, timber, fresh water, land, rare earth, diamonds. it looks really good. it looks to the chinese the way a ribeye steak looks to my dog. yes, china will try to make russia very junior partner in this organization of nations, if you will, that we saw represented at the shanghai cooperative organization. i think peter is correct to focus on we need to be self

aware and in particular india is where, in my view, we've still got some trade space. i think it's unlikely we'll convince china to change course. unlikely we'll convince russia to change course. certainly iran, maybe over time. but, the main ball here diplomatically for the united states is india. we can still work with india i think in positive ways again if we are self aware of how we operate in the larger world. last thought, we shouldn't understate the immense power of america's alliances around the world. yes, we've high lighted a few who stand against us. look at nato. 32 nations just about. sweden will join shortly. 55% of the world's gdp, japan, south korea, australia. we have a glittering array of alliances.

i want our hand of cards here. >> you can read peter's new piece "the new york times." peter, thank you so much. retired four star navy admiral james stavridis, around the fourth of july, good time to thank you for all you've ginn the country. good to see you. still ahead, ron desantis trailing donald trump by a lot. and now his own supporters are sounding the alarm about his campaign. politico's meredith mcgraw has new reporting on the republican race for president. she joins us straight ahead on "morning joe." she joins us straight ahead on "morning joe." sterol can be hard. diets and exercise add to the struggle. today, it's possible to go from struggle to cholesterol success with leqvio. with a statin, leqvio is proven to lower bad cholesterol by over 50% and keep it low with two doses a year. common side effects were injection site reaction, joint pain, urinary tract infection, diarrhea, chest cold, pain in legs or arms, and shortness of breath. ask your doctor about twice-yearly leqvio. lower. longer. leqvio. ♪

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♪♪ live picture of the white house, 6:46 on a wednesday morning. the day after the fourth of july. the secret service is now investigating how a small bag of suspected cocaine was found in the white house. on sunday night, employees were briefly evacuated after a white powdery substance was discovered in a small dime size bag, according to a secret service official. president biden was not at the white house at the time.

the d.c. fire department subsequently was called in to evaluate the substance which was determined to be nonhazardous. a source familiar with the investigation said the secret service is now reviewing camera footage and entrance logs to see who had access to the space where the suspected drugs were found. however, the source knows the investigation could be difficult because no one knows how long that bag actually was there. and so many people walk through the area everyday. the white house so far has declined to comment. john, this was a headline that i think grabbed a lot of people's attention yesterday. do we know anything else about it? >> well, we know the new york post is handling with usual subtlety, snow white house. >> sure. >> you can imagine who they're insinuating it belongs to. we don't know much. this did puzzle folks who i talked to over the weekend about it. it's sort of the waiting room in the west wing. it's not open to the public, but people can come and go if you have an appointment to see anybody in the west wing, not just the president. you would come there and probably wait in the waiting

room. it's not clear how long that bag with the suspected cocaine has been there. certainly no idea who it belongs to. they are going to investigate and certainly grabbed the secret service's attention. anything that requires a slight -- even brief evacuation is a big deal. but the answers we simply don't know yet. it may be as you just noted may be time before you know who it belonged to. may not at all. the president was at camp david over the weekend when this happened, so he was not impacted. but certainly as we learn more, we'll keep you posted. coming up next, 30 million americans are at risk of severe storms today. that means big delays at the airports, i'm afraid to say. we'll have more on that when "morning joe" comes right back. k i brought in ensure max protein with 30g of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks.

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ladies and gentlemen, please welcome united states senator, lindsey graham. [ audience booing ] >> thank you. thank you -- [ booing ] >> thank you all for coming. thank you very, very much. thank you. thank you. >> you know, you can make mistakes on occasion, even lindsey down here, senator lindsey graham. we love senator lindsey graham. we're going to love him. [ booing ] >> we're going to love him. i know, it's half and half. but when i need some of those liberal votes, he's always there to help me get them, okay? we got some pretty liberal people, but he's good. he's -- he's -- he's there -- he's there when you need him. he's there when you need him. i'm going to get him straightened out.

>> south carolina senator lindsey graham in his home state booed mercilessly over the weekend by a crowd of republicans with donald trump there doing very little to defend him, instead, goading his supporters into booing senator graham even more. claire, it's almost hard to watch at this point, a man who just subjects himself again and again and again to this humiliation and to defend donald trump, and that's what he gets in return for it. remember, he went out for a brief moment on january 6th and said, i'm done with donald trump, bumps into some people at the airport in washington who call him traitors and he immediately flips. he's been on tv in the last few months, literally weeping for people to give money to donald trump's campaign. and this is what he gets in return. it's -- you know the man, you worked alongside him. it's -- humiliation seems like an understatement. >> yeah, i don't think humiliation is a strong enough word. and everybody needs to keep context here. i mean, this is his hometown.

>> yeah. >> this is a small town. he lives 15 miles away and this is not -- these are supposed to be his people! now, one thing it does show is i do believe there are probably a lot of people, and i've met these people, who travel around the country just to see donald trump. it's a little bit like the grateful dead for people who are weird. they go on the road, to see donald trump. so i would, in lindsey's defense, there's probably a good chunk of this audience that's not south carolina, but humiliation here is not what the crowd did, it's what donald trump did. he treated him like he was a piece of dirt under his shoe. and i've got a real shot to lindsey. lindsey, it's not working. you cannot put aside your convictions and your character to support this man. it will not work.

he knows this guy is trouble for the united states of america, and another place he split with trump is over ukraine. so lindsey, find yourself in this moment. use this as a teaching moment. you need to be lindsey. not some embarrassing sycophant that has attached yourself like a leech to the side of this man, i would say, to the backside of this man. and it is just beyond sad and depressing and if it wasn't lindsey's own fault, it's his fault. so i can't feel sorry for him. but he doesn't appear ready or willing or capable of correcting this problem. >> it's hard to imagine him leaving donald trump at this point, but as you say, that was in pickens, south carolina, not far from lindsey graham's hometown, in his state. that should be his crowd. and going on tv and literally weeping for donald trump is not

even enough. so why do you sell your soul? it remains one of the great mysteries of our modern politics. claire, thanks so much. we'll have much more on that moment in south carolina, what it says about the republican party and the state of the presidential race with nbc's vaughn hillyard when he joins us next with his latest reporting. we're coming right back on "morning joe." oe." from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need

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is.

2024 is the most important election in my lifetime! america literally is at stake as we know it, is as stake as we know it. i'm sorry i'm so upset, but please help president trump. if you can afford $5 or $10. if you can't afford a dollar, fine, just pray. make sure you vote as early as you can in your state. don't risk anything anymore. vote as soon as you can. pray for this country. pray for this president. and if you've got any money to give, give it! >> senator lindsey graham getting choked up back in april asking people to give money to donald trump after his arraignment in lower manhattan. more on that story in just a moment, as lindsey graham showed up on stage over the weekend with donald trump and was booed roundly in his home state. welcome back to "morning joe." it is wednesday, july 5th. jonathan lemire, katty kay still with us. joining the conversation, our good friend msnbc contributor, mike barnicle with a stunning backdrop this morning, mike. looking good, my friend.

how was the fourth of july? let me get, baseball, fireworks, grandkids? >> baseball, fireworks, grandkids, and the united states of america. it was a wonderful day and then i wake up this morning and i'm on here and i have to listen to lindsey graham and it's a whole different view of the country from lindsey graham. wow. >> it is. it is. we're going to dig into that. i've got to ask you about a little bit baseball. we got some bummer news. shohei ohtani who was putting on one of the greatest shows we've ever seen as a pitcher and hitter, something going on with his finger, he gave up back-to-back home runs and then comes out of the rain. now we've learned that he's got a blister that will prevent him from pitching at least in the upcoming all-star game. we hope to see him in the batter's box, at least. and mike trout down with a broken wrist. a double dose of bad news, a triple dose, really, for the

angels. >> shohei ohtani, one of the most fabulous baseball players i've seen in my lifetime, considering what he does on both sides of the diamond, throws 100 miles an hour from the outfield, plays the outfield excellently, and hits the ball like no one in the major leagues does. he might be the finest pure hitter since ted williams. and mike trout, who is arguably, other than shohei ohtani, the finest major league baseball player we have. broken the handmade bone in his hand. he's going to be out for a considerable period of time. that's tough for both individual athletes, but it's tougher for fans of major league baseball, who don't really get an opportunity to see these guys play on a regular basis, because they're out on the west coast and the time lapse, obviously. you go to bed in the east, at 10:00, when they're just starting to play. so hopefully, you know, they'll both recover. we'll see shohei ohtani at the plate in the all-star game. mike trout, really too bad on

him. tough call. >> i said triple dose of bad luck because their third baseman, anthony rendon got hurt yet. how about the surging new york yankees. ten games over 500. about to catch the orioles -- >> willie, i lost you there. i heard mike loud and clear. it is a shame about ohtani. you know, this has been a great baseball season, despite the fact that our teams, yankees and red sox have been pretty mediocre, you know, the rule changes have worked. attendance is up, people are really excited. and it did fill like the all-star game was going to be an ohtani showcase before he heads to free agency at the end of year. but yes, it's true, the yankees have played a little better of late, doing so without aaron judge. the red sox had a nice weekend up north, swept the blue jays, but then fell flat on their faces against the rangers yesterday.

the injuries are just piling up. everyone who pitches for that team is hurt at the moment. but yeah, it's a shame about ohtani, and this is an angels team. despite having ohtani and trout, haven't sniffed them for a while. these guys will miss substantial time, odds are they all out of it again. >> and here we are coming up on the all-star break with the cincinnati reds and the arizona diamondbacks in first place. two great stories there. but the best team in baseball right now, atlanta braves. they've won nine out of ten, looking really, really good. let's turn to some news here, just after the top of the hour. nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard, national correspondent for politico, meredith mcgraw, both join us. good to see you. vaughn, we were just discussing a minute ago with claire mccaskill, the scene in south carolina over the weekend. here is where republican senator lindsey graham stood on a stage in front of a big crowd in his home state, not far from his hometown to introduce donald trump. the reception he received at home. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome united states senator

lindsey graham! [ booing ] >> thank you. [ booing ] thank you all -- [ booing ] thank you all for coming. [ booing ] thank you very, very much. [ booing ] thank you. >> you can make mistakes on occasion. even lindsey down here, senator lindsey graham. we love senator graham [ booing ] we're going to love him. we're going to love him. i know. it's half and half, but what i need some of those liberal votes, he's always there to help me get them, okay? we've got some pretty liberal people, but he's good. he's -- he's there -- he's there when you need him. he's there when you need him. i'm going to get him straightened out. >> so vaughn, you were actually there on saturday in pickens, south carolina, at this event. give us a little color and why these people, these supporters

of donald trump, who theoretically, most of them live in the state of south carolina, some probably don't, but some do, were booing their own senator. is it because he dared to deviate and separate from him for about ten minutes on january 6th? >> i mean, this is a romance novel that we're on chapter eight now in this, and for lindsey graham, when the booing started, it actually went for about 30 seconds, i finally pulled out my phone to start taking some of the video of it, but realized that the crowd wasn't going to stop. he was booed on the stage and off the stage. i went up to one guy and i said, what's the reason that you're booing. and he said, i've got 12, where should i begin? there were a bunch of folks in the crowd yelling "traitor." lindsey graham was the senator sat one point who said that the party should tell donald trump to go to hell. he likened having to cruise between ted cruz and donald trump in 2016 either being shot or dying by poison. so for this party dynamic here, i mean, lindsey graham has done everything now over the last few years to ingratiate himselfback

with donald trump, but it's much like nancy nas, the south carolina congresswoman who said his entire legacy was wiped away and the party needed to move on and move forward. donald trump had called her a grandstander, endorsed her primary opponent last year in the congressional midterms, but guess who's back in his corner again? nancy mace. lindsey graham. yet these crowds here, day don't forget who donald trump is. at the same time, it's an acknowledgement and a recognition that donald trump is the clear front-runner for this nomination. >> yeah, congresswoman's mace's flirtation with being a mainstream republican didn't last very long. she's been all over the biden crime family talk of late. but let's stay with trump. you know, this is again -- as much as lindsey graham has never been beloved by the hard-core republican base in south carolina, this just shows his influence. this is his party. south carolina is a state where there two republican candidates.

nikki haley and tim scott. donald trump is way ahead in the polls. he's barely out there campaigning. he doesn't have to. you know, are you seeing -- as you talk to the trump people, but also these other campaigns, do you -- is there any sense that the dynamics are going to change? he can stay above the fray. he doesn't have to debate, maybe. >> i'm seeing such little movement on the part of the voters. those are the conversations that are the most important. on saturday, when donald trump mentioned the names nikki haley and tim scott being from south carolina, it was a muted response. it was almost like he named somebody's second cousin that nobody really cares about. for donald trump here, this is a moment where he told the crowd, quote, they want to take away my freedom, because i'll never let them take away your freedom. he is bringing them onboard here for this fight. and this fight is not just a political one, it is the legal one. and that is exactly -- in summer nine of trump rallies is what it's taking to bring them onboard here. and frankly, until you see some movement, yes, will hurd and ron

desantis, they were at a parade yesterday in new hampshire. at the same time, that pales in comparison to tens of thousands of folks that showed up in rural south carolina to defend the former president. >> meredith, you've got some new reporting that shows a top spokesperson for the super pac supporting ron desantis is raising flags about the florida governor's ability to overtake donald trump in the race for the nomination, calling the desantis campaign the clear underdog in a twitter spaces event which was recorded on sunday night. >> in national polling, we are way behind. i'll be the first to admit that, okay. i believe in being really blunt and really honest. it's an uphill battle. i don't think it's an unwinnable battle by any stretch, but clearly, donald trump is the runaway front-runner. >> so that's steve cortez, meredith, speaking on behalf of that super pac that supports ron desantis. not saying anything, really, that we don't know to be true, which is that he's way behind. and whatever he's done so far to

introduce himself to voters hasn't made much of a dent in the support for donald trump. so how are they viewing this now? how are they approaching this? they've had a couple of months to introduce him to the country, to present, i guess, a case to make him an alternative to donald trump, though, not much criticism of donald trump himself. what is the path forward here? >> well, steve cortez is really stating the obvious, as you said. the desantis campaign has been behind trump by double digits in a lot of these national polls. and even though desantis has been out on the campaign trail, he really has just not been able to capture the kind of momentum that people who are not for the trump candidacy were hoping that he would be able to do. and steve cortez was pretty blunt in this twitter spaces interview. he was talking about trump being the front-runner. he did say that he hoped that the more people get to know desantis, get to know his personal story, political story, that hopefully, these numbers will change. but overall, he was talking

about how just -- about just how big of an uphill battle this really is going to be for the desantis campaign at the moment. and you know, the desantis campaign has talked about how this is a marathon and not a sprint. and i can't emphasize that enough. it definitely is. we still have many, many months until the first nominating contests. but as vaughn was talking about there in south carolina, just the show of force, the amount of enthusiasm the republican party has for donald trump right now, being able to attract tens of thousands of people to stand out in the hot summer heat, to hear him speak. we're just not seeing that from any of the other supporters for the other candidates out on the campaign trail right now. >> it was kind of interesting when cortez himself actually jumped from being such a trump supporter, mike, to being a desantis supporter, because he had been so loyal to donald trump. and you're kind of listening between the lines there, there's some movement, perhaps, of him moving back to donald trump, saying that this is going to make him a better candidate. one of the things i'm interested

in seeing in trump at the moment, when you see him with those crowds, there's less of the 2020 stolen election big lie stuff going on in the crowds. now it's about his legal issues. the message, though, the same, right? the message is still, the state is against me, i've been robbed. i'm the victim of an injustice, but now it's about all of the legal fights that he's facing and the legal challenges he's facing. and a little bit less about 2020. he's such kind of a tuned candidate that he does almost instinctively move, message the same, getting the support of the voters the same, but he just knows when to move on from something. >> you know, katty, it's interesting. that's an interesting question, an interesting observation. over the years, donald trump has not changed his act. he has changed the rhetoric in the act from stage i to stage ii or whatever, but i can clearly recall a moment in january of 2016 at a trump rally in manchester, new hampshire, on an icy, freezing night, and he made

his way down, a huge crowd, the eclectic movement, people were really into it before he arrived. and when he started speaking, you see what i call in covering campaigns and crowds and everything like that, the leaners. people leaning in. thinking that they could get closer to trump, listening to him. and trump then had an act. and it was a good act, but it was based on his celebrity and the fact that he flies into states on his own plane with his name on the side of the plane. that act still exists, except it's deeper and more dangerous, today, i would submit. and it is basically a seditious act. he's urging an overthrow of the government sometimes. he's urging people to help him fight his legal issues. and vaughn, my question to you is based upon the continuum of the trump campaign, from 2016 up to this very point, what do people tell you, when you go through -- circulate through the crowd, why are you for donald

trump? why are you here today? is it toughness? because he fights for you? what did they tell you? >> you're exactly right, he's fought for them, not only the administration, but continues to fight for them. and they view him in so many ways like a martyr. much like if i may, a great many of them view themselves. he has cast himself as the person who is paying attention to them, going to places like pickens, which has a population of about 3,000 folks, and is going out there and making the case that he is the one on the front lines to listen for them. and they truly resonate and they truly believe that he is that person that is listening and fighting for them and is under attack, because he is doing the unpopular thing in washington. that is why we have seen him shift away from representing the republican party. this isn't about a republican party takeover at this point, this is about building a movement, larger than a party. and i think that that's why he has found an ally in marjory taylor green, for instance. somebody who is there as one of

the pre-speakers before him the other day. and somebody who has echoed him, but in a fervent way. one of the lines that she delivered was, impeach biden, impeach mayorkas, impeach garland, cut funding to jack smith, cut funding to merrick garland, cut funding to ukraine. it's those key words. why? those are the sources that are undermining donald trump specifically. that is what this is about. it's not about winning over and beating the democratic party, but about lifting up donald trump and giving him the backing and the resources that it needs to continue to expand this movement that focus as meredith said, continue to come out in droves for now nine summers in a row, to continue to build that movement, so that they can get another crack at it, because they've learned from the first administrations and the barriers, as donald trump puts it, in a way that next time around, in a more of a authoritarian way will be able to exert that executive power, in order to make the necessary

changes to actually better reflect the lives of folks, for example, in pickens, south carolina. >> and the other thing you hear, of course, is that donald trump gave us three supreme court justices that overturned roe v. wade, the holy grail for half a century. and just last week, affirmative action, as well. so meredith, as you cover the desantis campaign and this comment from steve cortez and others, internally, what are they hoping happens here? what is the path to victory as they see it? is it some political act of nature? the indictments that may be coming in georgia, which only appear to have made him stronger, when you look at what happened around the mar-a-lago documents. what do they believe is the path to victory here, if they actually see one? >> that was one of the things that cortez was talking about in that twitter spaces. he mentioned that in all of these polls, donald trump has gotten a significant boost in the aftermath of these past two indictments and how hard that is

to sort of overcome that. and you know, i think as they move forward, as donald trump continues to be embroiled in these legal challenges, he continues to get a lot of media attention because of that, too. one of the things i've noticed from some of these campaigns, is that for them to get any attention, they have to be talking about trump, which just creates this feedback loop of talking about trump more and giving him and his campaign even more attention. i think for desantis, ha haley, scott, they're looking at these early nominating states, new hampshire, iowa, south carolina, hoping to come in first or second and use that as momentum going forward, but what we're seeing in these state polls so far is that trump has a significant lead in those states. and i think they're also looking forward to the republican national committee's debate in august, although it might be a much smaller crowd on that stage as some of these candidates are going to have to prove that

they've received 40,000 donors, that they have at least 1% in some of these polls, and that they also agree to the rnc's pledge that they'll support the republican candidate. we've seen some like asa hutchinson and will hurd balk at that criteria. it will be interesting to see if perhaps that debate stage gives them a moment that they can use to propel their campaign forward. >> interesting, of course, to see if donald trump shows up at the debate. he has really no reason to go at this point, other than to be a part of the spectacle, he's so far ahead. national politico correspondent for politico, meredith mcgraw and vaughn hillyard. we appreciate your reporting. this morning, millions of people across the country are still under threat of dangerous severe storms and scorching heat in the west prompting new concerns about wildfires. joining us from coney island, new york, nbc news correspondent, emilie ikeda. what's the latest on the

weather? >> reporter: it really has been an unrelenting start to summer in terms of the storms we've been seeing. but i'll start with the good news. some of the nation's largest, biggest fireworks displays were a go last night, including in new york city, despite torrential rain and bouts of lightning that happened throughout the day. but we also witnessed the sheer force of these serious storms. here in coney island, two people were hospitalized after a lightning strike as other parts of the country today brace for even more severe weather. mother nature lit up the nation's skies with fourth of july fireworks all her own, as millions from coast-to-coast dealt with a holiday full of extreme heat and severe storms. from the rockies to the east coast, scattered storms disrupted a host of independence day festivities, clearing out beaches in new jersey, and abruptly pausing coney island's famed hot dog eating contest. >> as soon as we saw that first lightning, that's it. cut it off. >> reporter: nearby, the new york fire department reporting two people were rushed to the

hospital after a lightning strike. out west, it was the scorching heat that put a damper on holiday plans, fueling wildfires in washington and arizona and canceling some nearby fourth of july events. at the nation's airports, more than 450 flights canceled and another 4,200 delayed tuesday. at one point, there were ground stops at all three of new york city's major airports, adding to a week of travel chaos amid record holiday travel. nbc news learning, united airlines plans to reduce its schedule to give even more spare gates and buffer, especially during thunderstorm season. but despite the wild weather, americans' patriotism shining through. baseball fans singing during a rainy game at fenway park. ♪ sweet caroline ♪ >> reporter: and the "uss constitution," the navy's oldest commissioned warship, setting sail under stormy skies. >> happy fourth! love you! god bless you! >> reporter: as family and friends flocked to the beac,

fireworks dazzling skylines nationwide celebrating america's 247th birthday. >> reporter: and while july 4th may have passed, many celebrations will continue from south dakota to new jersey to colorado, dozens of independence day festivities have been postponed until later this week, even later this month because of the severe weather. but for those who are planning to return home, just keep in mind, you will be in good company. a record 50 plus million people took to the skies and roadways this july 4th. as we always say, willie, pack your patience. >> nbc's emilie ikeda, go get yourself a nathan's hot dog and ride the cyclone. have fun today. thanks so much. still ahead on "morning joe," a federal judge orders the biden administration to stop talking with social media companies. what does that mean, exactly? and what it means for the effort to tamp down misinformation about covid and more. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. atching "mo" we'll be right back.

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7:27 here in new york. key agencies and officials from the biden administration have been barred from meeting and communicating with social media companies about content on their platforms. a trump-appointed federal judge cited with republican attorneys general in a lawsuit alleging that the government went too far in encouraging social media companies to address posts they felt could contribute to covid-19 vaccine hesitancy or upend elections. nbc news reports the ruling said that government agencies like the department of health and human services and the fbi could not talk to social media companies for, quote, the purpose of urging, encouraging,

pressuring or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech. the judge's ruling could go beyond speech, undoing more than a decade of work between the federal government and companies to curb criminal activity online. according to a white house official, the department of justice is, quote, reviewing the court's injunction and will evaluate its options in this case. this administration has promoted responsible actions to protect public health, safety, and security when confronted by challenges like a deadly pandemic and foreign attacks on our elections. nbc news reached out to meta, twitter, and alphabet for comment, but have not yet heard back. joining us now, cat secretsky and david rohde. i'll start with you, cat. help us understand exactly what the federal government cannot do that it previously was doing in terms of its communication with

social media companies. >> this is an extraordinarily broad injunction that could have major effects on a lot of the communications that were occurring between doj. various health agencies around the pandemic and election misinformation. now, the judge's injunction does have some carveouts to allow the government and the companies to continue to talk about criminal activity, about voter suppression, but legal experts i spoke to expect that this will have a major chilling effect on ongoing communications. the order also limits some of the government's communications with academic groups that were studying disinformation on social media, like the election integrity project, which is run by stanford and the university of washington. >> so, david, you know, there are some carveouts here, like if a crime is about to be committed, the government can reach out to those social media companies. but there's real concern with

salespeople i spoke to yesterday about covid or the next pandemic, but national security concerns as well, with election disinformation and the like, people you've talked to who study this all the time, what's their level of alarm after this? >> they're very concerned. and what's happening is that, look, there were mistakes made by public health officials in the beginning of the pandemic, but there wasn't a vast plot to trick the american people into taking a vaccine that would harm them. so you have a talking point, a political talking point turning into a court ruling. and that's what's so different about this. it's reinforcing, you know, these theories about what the government did and now restricting them. so should fema not warn people about a hurricane? i mean, this was a public health emergency. it's sort of a basic thing about the government try to counter disinformation. and the second thing, i've talked to current government officials who are very concerned about foreign interference or just deep fakes in the 2024 election. >> mike barnicle, jump in.

>> david, would it be fair to look from a little bit, you know, 50,000 feet down on this ruling and other rulings like it, to make the claim or posit the theory that in way, the federalist society, leonard leo and the former president, with his judicial appointments, have changed the course of the country's legal history, and in fact, has put a big handprint on the administration today, because of these judicial rulings? >> i want to say, not yet, and that there's a good chance that the justice department will appeal this and the biden administration will push back, and we'll have to see again where does the supreme court come down. and the broader trend is an increasingly political court system that's seen as making liberal or conservative rulings. conservatives have said that the courts have been too liberal for too long, but the kind of hyperpartisanship that we see in our politics is definitely

infecting the court system. the judge who made this ruling has made several -- he was a trump appointee, and he's made several other, you know, conservative rulings like this. so that's the slow encroachment on the courts and on their credibility, their impartiality. the supreme court has record-low approval at this point. so, this worries me. i'm a reporter, i try to -- as i keep saying on the show, like, be fair and stick to the facts. and the sticks need to do the same. they need to act as umpires, not players on either side of the partisan divide. >> kat, the intersection of politics and tech is so interesting at the moment, i've also had senators on capitol hill from both sides saying to me that both sides, republicans and democrats, want to do something about ai, for example, because they could see what it could mean for their own political campaigns, it would just be so easy to have pictures and videos of them posted saying things they never said. but in this instance, there does seem to be a sort of -- and i've

heard it before from some conservatives, saying that the whole theory of misinformation since 2016 is something that liberals are pushing, that it's against republican candidates, particularly against donald trump. what is the implication of all of this for 2024? of this ruling and of this feeling that, you know, that somehow misinformation isn't a real thing, even though we know that it is. >> well, you can't look at this ruling in a vacuum. we're at a moment where elon musk now owns twitter and has taken tremendous steps to unwind the content moderation teams and workforce at that company. meta, under financial pressure, has made major layoffs that have cut those teams. so really, what we've seen since the 2016 election is a buildup of efforts to fact check and otherwise moderate content on these services. we certainly saw that play out in the 2020 election. and in the year since then, we've now seen this gradual unwinding. and this ruling only furthers those efforts.

>> kat secretsky and david rohde, thank you both for walking us through this decision. we appreciate it. coming up is next, a look at the work of team rubicon. a disaster response unit being featured in a new series where united states military veterans ride to the rescue after disaster. that's next on "morning joe." rer disaster that's next on "morning joe. what if your entire day glided like dove men? it's made with a plant-based moisturizer and glides on without irritation. so you can glide through your entire day with confidence. ♪♪ feel the dove men glide.

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wow. what a beautiful picture from high atop the washington monument while looking down at the lincoln memorial, 7:38 in the morning on this july 5th. we are just about a month into hurricane season and forecasters are already keeping an eye on

the tropics. also watching the weather very closely, a veteran-led humanitarian organization called team rubicon. that group is the subject of a new streaming series on the roku channel. take a look. >> i'm kevin o'connell. i work with a team at this old house that rebuilds old homes. when people run away from disasters -- >> hurricane ian is moving in our direction. >> this will be a heavy rain event that could impact life and property. >> reporter: these are the men and women who run towards it. >> most of them spend years volunteering to serve their country. >> i'm watching this disaster unfold. and feel an urge to help. >> the damage is astronomical. beyond belief. >> everything is just tore up. >> and i said, i think i should go down there. >> the mission is to help the neediest. >> let's do it! >> reporter: they call themselves -- >> team rubicon. >> i started calling marines that i'd served with. we inspired and launched this movement that would become an

organization. >> come with us as we help those in need. and joining us now, the host of the team rubicon series you saw there, kevin o'connor, along with team rubicon ceo, art de la cruz. great to see you both. art, happy to see you. we saw our buddy, our mutual friend, jake wood in there. with people not familiar with the work you do and the group, give us a sense of how this all started and how it's grown from there. >> so jake, we started this organization in 2010 after the haiti earthquake, and since that time, we've grown from those eight initial deployers to a force of over 170,000 registered volunteers, of which over 50% are volunteers. so we used the skills, experience, and education that military veterans have to help people on their worst days after disasters. >> so art, it literally goes in my experience with team rubicon, disaster strikes, it hits the news, you guys see some weather

coming somewhere and you rally the troops in way that was not unlike the work you all did serving overseas. >> yeah, i think that's really accurate characterization. the reality is, it's just like the military. our volunteers are training year-round to be ready, you know, when disaster strikes. it's about the preparation, about the process, about the equipment, and ultimately about the people executing. >> ken, what impressed you most? you've seen some rebuilding in your time on television and outside of it. what impressed you most, as you watched closely and observed the work that team rubicon does? >> when i deployed to start making the show, every person that i met, you couldn't tell who was a veteran, who was a civilian, every person i met woke up from a cot in a hot, sweaty gym, and was ready to work. they didn't ask who they were helping. they didn't complain that the food might have been a little cold that morning. they wanted to get some stuff done. and it's this mentality that you are surrounded by, with everyone who shows up there, that they

just want to get busy helping their neighbors. and it's very inspiring. >> so kevin, walk us through some of the disasters that you guys responded to for these shows, and how did it -- how did this differ from the work you're used to doing? >> we met team rubicon back in 2017 after hurricane harvey. they were doing cleanup and rebuild. that's sort of more what we do, how to rebuild houses and make them resilient. what's difficult here is the immediacy of the response. so literally, a storm happens and they have boots on the ground within 24 hours. so the things that we did, where we were responding to hurricane ian, which was a long-term cleanup, but then we also would get the call that a tornado touched down in selma, alabama, and we had to be there within a day or so. and immediately start setting up operations so that you could help the homeowners who have been affected, the survivors and we were doing things like tarping roofs, mucking out houses, cleaning out. it's a ton of hard work, but incredibly satisfy things to do.

>> let's take another look at a moment from the show. one episode where a team rubicon volunteer in the midst of responding to a natural disaster makes a surprising discovery. >> i'm guessing this butter bar belongs to an air force officer. >> yep. second louis. >> second lieutenant. >> we went fishing through your dad's cabinet and came up with something else altogether. >> we thank you, guys. never forget it. >> we work for hugs. >> mike barnicle, you've gotten to know this organization pretty well over the years as well, jake wood has been a friend of ours on this show, many times talking about the work, it is haiti and it's puerto rico, but a lot of it is at home with hurricanes and tornadoes and the disasters we've seen, hurricane sandy, for example, that hit the tri-state area so hard in 2012. they just do awesome work. and on the other side of it, as art can tell you, it gave a lot of purpose to a lot of veterans who may have needed it at that

time in their lives. >> boy, that's for sure, willy, that is for sure. and kevin, the word "team" itself, could you speak to the word "team" in terms of whether it's a squad, whether it's a platoon, whether it's a whole company. how many people, how many of the volunteers were drawn to this, to team rubicon because of the need to feel part of a team again? >> you know, as i said, the people who show up for this are people who really want to get busy, get their hands dirty and be involved. and it's nice to be able to write a check to an organization to support them or to sometimes help spread mulch or whatever it is, this is an entirely different level of engagement. people are literally deploying to these sites, living in tough situations, but they're coming there, because they really want to help their fellow citizens. you can feel that mentality, that i think comes from the military, was it spreads to the civilians like myself who are

there. everybody sort of pulls together. it doesn't matter what you are in civilian life or military life. everybody has a job. that's one of the principles of team rubicon, everyone has a job, everyone has a purpose, and you get stuff done. when you're working next to the ceo of the organization, a navy pilot, a top gun instructor, and he and i are putting on tyvek suits, stripping down wall board, and pulling out nasty insulation, it sends a message that you are here to work, here to help, it doesn't matter who you are in your regular life, now's the time for community service. and that team building is something that i think makes everybody feel -- it helps you get up in the morning to do the work that you have to do. >> what's amazing about this is that obviously you're helping the communities that have been hit by disasters, but talk a little bit more about what this means for the veterans myself. my husband is a veteran and then he was a war correspondent, i know how hard it can be for people to readjust and find that same sense of purpose that they had when they were serving in civilian life. talk a little bit about that and what this does for the veterans

themselves? >> yeah, well, we're really fond of saying that veterans are built to serve, as you saw from your husband, oftentimes, the skills and the experience, the education they have remains untapped. so we like to say, you know, by volunteering with team rubicon, you connect with the community that you left. you maintain an identity. and probably most importantly, is you have this incredible, you know, purpose in helping people after their worst day. you know, in addition, you find that through volunteering, it's a really great, and i like to say, selfish act, where individuals who serve find again this resilience, this idea that they can be a part of something larger than themselves. so it becomes a really, really powerful act, not just for the communities and the people you're serving, but for the individual themselves. and we think that's what keeps them coming back to continue helping after these disasters. >> as you said, art, 175,000 registered volunteers with team rubicon. 55% of them are military

veterans, so you don't have to be a vet to get involved. if somebody's watching this and wants to jump onboard, what's the best way to do it? >> teamrubiconusa.org. we would love your support and would love to see you in one of our gray shirts. >> you can watch the entire "team rubicon" series for free on roku tv. go online to sign up to help out. kevin o'connor and art de la cruz, thank you both very much for being here today. we appreciate it. still ahead, a look at some of the stories making headlines across the country. plus, a look inside one of the american factories directly aiding the ukrainian war effort. that story when we come right back. effort. that story when we come right back d me felt more energy in just two weeks. uh... here i'll take that. -everyone: woo hoo! ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein, one gram of sugar. enter the nourishing moments giveaway for a chance to win $10,000.

while the ukrainian military continues to fight and push back russia and free its occupied territories, nbc news is taking a look inside one of the factories here in the united states directly helping those

front line efforts. >> this one, in scranton, pennsylvania. >> we are producing thousands of rounds more a month than this time last year. >> eventually becoming some of the very firepower crucial to ukraine's fight against russia. we were granted access to the plant. >> i request can feel that heat from back here, and it's a furnace turning steel into play-doh. >> the army won't tell us how

many are going to ukraine, but even if every one of these shells went to ukraine, that may still not be enough. some in the scranton community, grateful to their role in the ukrainian war effort. >> i think they should get as much ammunition as they can. >> and it raises concerns about america running out of ammunition. seth jones studies military operations. >> if united states went to war today, would this country be ready for the fight? >> if united states went to war today it would have enough weapons in some cases for a short war. it would not have sufficient weapon munitions for a protracted war. >> amid tensions with russia and china, the army says right now

its experience its fastest ammunition ramp up since the korean war. >> mike barnicle, those images out of scranton, pennsylvania, is what president zelenskyy is hoping to see. >> what we just saw in that one factory here in the united states is really the underpinning of the survival of the country of ukraine. the disturbing aspect is that we keep hearing increasing rumblings from one political party, largely the republican party, is they are not sure whether they can commit themselves to supporting ukraine, and the survival of ukraine is on the table, and

scranton, pennsylvania, and other places in the country are doing all we can to help support the survival. it will be an interesting few months as that war picks up its pace heading towards winter. >> and president biden has assured zelenskyy we will support them. president biden's message for americans on independence day. "morning joe" is coming right back. ck

we moved out of the city so our little sophie could appreciate nature. but then he got us t-mobile home internet. i was just trying to improve our signal, so some of the trees had to go. i might've taken it a step too far. (chainsaw revs) (tree crashes) (chainsaw continues) (daughter screams) let's pretend for a second that you didn't let down your entire family. what would that reality look like? well i guess i would've gotten us xfinity... and we'd have a better view. do you need mulch? what, we have a ton of mulch.

15,000 generations of

humanity, yet we have evolved not at all. bound like animals to the laws of physics, shamed before the universe, and in all of history, only one man has stood to say that he will dictate what is and is not possible in this world. the nathan's famous fourth of july champion of the world, joey chestnut! >> how is that for an introduction of the all-time greatest, joey "jaws" chestnut, and putting down, ready for this? 62 hot dogs in ten minutes. he's gross and he's a champion, jonathan lemire. there was a rain delay yesterday. you wonder how is the rain delay

going to affect the pitcher, and how does it affect a team? boy, he seemed to ride it out and keep the game face on and achieve disgusting, disgusting heights again yesterday with 62 hot dogs in ten minutes, his 16th win. >> i refuse to watch the footage. my eyes are closed that i talk to you now. and that introduction, joey chestnut -- mike barnicle sent a message that he wants that kind of announcement. >> there were worthy challenges yesterday, but this guy is a beast. with that we will spare you the

footage for the rest of the hour. jonathan lemire, as you see there, and special correspondent, catty kay, and former u.s. senator and now msnbc political analyst, claire mccaskill. claire, i will not ask for your analysis of the hot dog cheating championship. how was your fourth of july? did you spend it on the lake? >> yeah, we had a huge family gathering and it was loving chaos all weekend long with grandchildren everywhere. >> sounds perfect, exactly how it ought to be. catty, how about you, how did your fourth look on the other side of the pond? >> yeah, look, you know, i remember saying to lemire on monday as we left, i wished everybody a happy and safe

fourth of july. could it have been a safer fourth of july? fourth of july, the most dangerous day in the american calendar for mass shootings. what a crazy and terrible way the country celebrates. i wish it was not this, but such is american gun control at the moment. >> yeah. >> baltimore. >> chicago, texas, and all around the country, mass shootings. it was pouring rain here, and i did not eat one single hot dog. >> yeah, we will talk about the shootings here in just a moment. another one overnight. for the white house it was a celebration yesterday of america's independence, they had the barbecue and concert and

fireworks. president biden addressed military members in the crowd that he called protecters of democracy. >> you are the backbone, the reality of why we are who we are, unbreaking and unbending, throughout our history, reminding us that democracy is never, never, never guaranteed. every generation must fight to maintain it. we must always cherish it, defend it and strengthen it. >> and for the musical act, he was met with enthusiasm for his re-election campaign. >> hey, buddy. welcome to your house, the white house. we're just renting. music can change moods and make us feel better, and it's just

incredible. i thought we had great, great entertainment here tonight. >> yeah. >> biden 2024! >> somebody yelled that from the crowd at the white house yesterday after president biden's leading republican challenger, donald trump, he didn't hit the campaign on the fourth but spent the holiday on social media railing against the justice department in addition to posting this photo of his head superimposed on george war's body, and then trump called for special counsel, jack smith, to be defunded and he said smith should be, quote, put out to rest before democrats still another election. donald trump was one of the only republican candidates actually

not out campaigning yesterday. ron desantis, and scott, were out, and pence pitched himself as a better option to donald trump. >> people of iowa and the people of america are ready for a change. i think different times call for different leadership in the republican party and in america and we are absolutely determined to offer our brand of leadership, and common sense conservative values with an essence of civility. >> claire, pretty conventional fourth of july campaigning, and donald trump posting a picture of himself as washington, and what does it say to you about the state of the republican primary that donald trump thinks i can stay home and sit at my

golf club and post on social media and that works for me, i don't have to go out and do an event and i don't have to go out and do the things other people feel like they need to do to get elected in iowa and new hampshire? >> in my opinion, one of the saddest things that have happened in modern politics is the fact that so many candidates don't think it's so important what we call in politics retail, which is shaking hands and looking people if the eye, and answering questions, and that's going away. for donald trump, he's more comfortable at his very luxurious golf resort. i guarantee you that most of america that is looking at the screen right now goes who are those other two guys?

that's the other thing interesting about this. we have a bunch of candidates that really have absolutely no name recognition, and they are not going to get name recognition by marching in a small fourth of july parade in new hampshire. that is not going to do it. they have to raise big money in order for anybody to go, who is that? donald trump's in a commanding position, and think about that, republican party. you have a guy that says f biden on the fourth of july and he's your man. unbelievable. >> so many of those second-tier republican candidates have issues on whether or not they will qualify for the first debate, and it's unclear if even nikki haley or tim scott and chris christie as well.

the trump team has made a calculation, and some of this might be trump's laziness, and beyond that they made a calculation that we don't need to be out there, and we will dominate the headlines for days and he can sit on truth social and wishing happy fourth of july to the winners and losers out there, and he has such a big lead and doesn't want to elevate the rest. do you see that strategy backfiring or is that the way to do it for him? >> his lead is increasing and not decreasing so the strategy of doing an occasional big rally, and whether he gets indicted or tweets or sends out posts on the fourth of july, he

gets media attention. if i was his campaign i would say carry on doing what you are doing. the only thing to remember is that in 2007, barack obama behind clinton, and so there's time. ron desantis is the only one that has money and some polling and has been consistently second in the polling, and he could still break through, but i don't see why the trump campaign would change strategies given that what they are doing is working well at the moment. >> and then a full year from now, he will get ready for the democratic convention and home stretch to try and win re-election, and unless something dramatic happens, it's donald trump's to lose, and

there's a lot of legal trouble ahead but if you are joe biden at that event last night waking up this morning on july 5th, how are you feeling with a year and change to go until election day? >> i think you are feeling pretty good. the big question mark that is looming over the election next year is in what state will the economy be this time next year. if these infrastructure projects all kick off across the country, joe biden will have a great opportunity to remind everyone that he didn't have 14,000 infrastructure weeks with no results, but he's fixing bridges and saving lives with highway improvements and water projects and grid projects and more internet in rural areas. he will have a lot to talk about. if those are kicking off, it will help the economy stay stable through the election. i think the only thing that joe

biden has to worry about, really, is if there's a blip in the economy and gas prices go up and there's another inflationary spike, no matter what he does he's in trouble. >> so jonathan, we know this is going to be a close election because national elections are close in this country, and people have strong feelings about donald trump, and there are a lot of people that still love him or think joe biden is too old. we will see how it plays out, but we know it will be close and donald trump will play the way we saw him playing yesterday. >> oh, yeah, donald trump is who he is and his campaign tactics have not changed at all. in terms of the popular vote and the electoral count, in the states that decide elections, they were close. 2020 as well, if not quite as

close as '16. we know this is a 50/50 country and will be a tight race. in terms of the president and his strategy, they are doing two things. just be president. being the commander-in-chief, and he's focusing on foreign policy and heading overseas and getting the job done, and that provides a clear contrast to the mess they are seeing on the republican side. the other half of it, raising money. the next few months the president ramped up his fundraising and there are concerns it has been sluggish so far, and the low-dollar donors that point to enthusiasm, and those have not rolled in like the white house would like. that's the concern so far, whether it's voters of color or young voters that might be a little less enthusiastic this time around, and maybe it's because of his age or because of the student debt relief program

knocked down by the supreme court last week, and climate change and the like. at the end of the day, particularly if donald trump is the republican on the other side, voters will turn out to vote against trump. >> and they are saying republicans and the supreme court are taking away your rights. and we are also dealing with the shootings in america, and the deadly mass shooting was in philadelphia on monday night. the gunman fired seemingly at random spanning several blocks. five people were killed ranging in age from 15 to 59. two children were injured, ages 2 and 15. the gunman is a 40-year-old man

with body armor and a handgun and a police scanner. in addition he had multiple magazines of ammunition. officers arrived on the scene and managed to take him into custody. he has yet to be identified publicly and not formerly charged. >> a person walking down the city street with an ar-style rifle and shooting randomly at people while wearing a bullet proof desk is a disgraceful but too familiar in america. >> authorities say another man who was taken into custody for returning fire on the suspect was released without being

charged because he likely acted in self defense. police say the shooting occurred in the fort worth neighborhood at 11:47 p.m. on monday, and several men fired indiscriminately into crowds of people striking adults and children. no arrests in that case. in baltimore, gunfire broke out after a block party on sunday night, and two people were killed including a 20-year-old man and 18-year-old woman identified as aleah gonzales. >> she was amazing. >> she was the best sister i could ever ask for. and i miss her so bad.

>> in addition to gonzales, 28 people were injured in the shooting, the youngest 13 years old. the authorities are asking for the public's help to provide information after sharing social media videos before the shooting started. and police are concerned about preparing for possible retaliation in this case. catty kay, you raised it and it seems to that in the summertime and on the fourth of july, but the truth is it happens all the time in this country, and you have to sit here the day after the fourth of july and read a litany of mass shootings of gun violence in the country, and some with handguns, and we don't know the motive in all of them, and there was an ar-15 style weapon with body armor and loaded down with ammunition. only stopped because the police intervened. >> yeah, listen to that little

boy that lost his big sister. still, every single time it makes you tear up when you hear these stories because it's unnecessary. it's a choice that america is making. it's america's exceptional problem, right? it doesn't happen anywhere else in the world to the same degree. we have regulated other things. america has regulated seat belts in cars, which means the number of children being killed in car accidents is way down, and the american public is on the side of doing the gun control, but the government is failing the american people and they are not representing what democracy wants. people want something to be done about this, but there's inaction in government and more and more people are getting killed, and that doesn't need to be

happening. evan gershkovich being held in russia by the kremlin. could there be another prisoner swap in the horizon. that's next on "morning joe."

the u.s. government is in contact now with russia to discuss potential prisoner swaps, according to a kremlin spokesperson coming one day after the u.s. ambassador to russia visited. a state department spokesperson declined to go into detail on the negotiation process setting the continuing work to secure the release of paul whelan and "the wall street journal" reporter. whelan has been held in russia since 2018.

let's bring in the chief international analyst for nbc news. admiral, it's great to see you. take us inside if you can what may be happening in the back channels behind the scenes, direct diplomacy between the united states and russia to secure the release of these two. >> i think the memoire by bill burns, he called it the back channel. it makes a point which is that a lot of diplomacy is actually done best away from the glare of publicity, and certainly exchanges fall into that category. point one, this correctly ought to be done without an enormous amount of media speculation about it. point two is i think there's a real chance here russia has a number of goals in the form of

individuals in prisons, both in the united states, and this is key, willie, and in the prisons of some of our allies, because we have given away some of their high-valued prisoners to them, like victor boot. we may have to broaden the quid pro quo. and it's important that we do so not only for prisoner exchanges like this, but, for example, on nuclear arms control and other things in the interest of both countries. the ukrainian grain deal is another example of putting things off the u.s./russia/ukraine track.

>> to your point, the white house certainly staying quiet on this, although aides are saying they want to proceed with caution. there is no sure thing to getting a deal done here, and they have been convincing allies. this comes as a precarious moment perhaps for putin coming just two weeks now after the wagner aborted mutiny. talk about how you see them navigating this, the prisoner swap, and trying to decide if prigozhin should be able to remain in belarus, and there are warnings from ukrainians saying russia could be planning something at the power plant. >> putin is in the middle of a course called dictator 101. dictator 101 is a course where

you learn that you can be weakened by those often the closest to you. you can be stabbed in the back. he's right when you categorize it in that way. that's good news for the west. if he were a stock, i would say putin has lost about 30% of his value, jonathan. he's not broke. he's not a penny stack or being given away, but he is weakened. what does he do? he rounds up the usual suspects, if you will, and uses this opportunity to take out anybody who he sees as a threat. he strengthens the physical protensions around moscow, and the brigades around moscow are taking resources away from ukraine, and that's a good thing. he will look at the hostage discussion as a way to demonstrate to the world that he

still has power. he gave a speech to the shanghai cooperation organization, his group of allies partners and friends over the weekend in which he tried to convince them that he remains on top of his game. he will do everything he can to try and do that, not only for the russian population, but i think more importantly for him, with the larger world that still kind of is swinging between the west and russia. >> by the way, a human rights lawyer was beaten yesterday in ukraine. with iran building drones for russia and china and having a spy base in cuba, and it's a

conversation. that's next on "morning joe." that's next on "morning joe.

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israel says it has intercepted five rockets fired from the gaza strip. this just hours after israel wrapped up a two-day large-scale military raid in the west bank. let's bring in nbc news foreign correspondent, matt bradley, who is live in the west bank. what are you seeing there today? >> reporter: what we are seeing here today is different than what we were seeing last night. in this very square we saw intense and focused violence right here for hours on end. today it's kind of back to normal to, you know, whatever that is. there's no such thing as normality here a day after what we saw last night. you can see it yourselves in a report that was on "nightly

news" last night. here it is. for palestinians, this was pay back. this shows a man ramming people with his car and he gets out and stabs people before a citizen shot him dead. they called it a response to israel launching its largest military fight. he says the israelis are firing missiles and using live ammunition and everything they have. the forces unexpectedly came and pushed us back.

the city now shrouded in smoke. israel's operation here is aimed at clearing one part of the city, a palestinian refugee camp that leaders say is a persistent threat. but as far as benjamin netanyahu is concerned, we're completing a mission, but this is not a one time operation. we will continue to uproot terrorism. as you can see, willie, all of that took place right here several hours ago, last night, and folks are picking up the pieces and cleaning the streets and repairing their windows, but given the weight of the tension in this community and broader country among palestinians and israelis, that tension, that violence could return at any time. willie? >> extraordinary report. matt bradley, please be safe there.

that's nbc news foreign correspondent. joining us is a professor of journalism at the university of new york. what do you make of what you have seen in the latest of generations of escalating violence? >> the palestinians lack the most basic rights, and human rights and amnesty, it holds millions of people without the right to be a citizen in a country in which they live, and the right to vote for the government that controls their lives. when people are desperate like that, they will take desperate measures because they see no hope, and unless there's hope that people can have the basic

rights that we take for granted, this violence will continue. >> every time there's some kind of violence like this, of course, you have a whole load of young people watching it and you don't know what the long-term impact is on them. we have seen netanyahu face problems, legal problems of his own. how much does that play into what is happening at the moment and has been happening this week, and what can the united states do? what does kind of leverage does the biden administration still have? >> well, you are absolutely right, to put a finger on it, it's a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. in terms of what happened here at this moment, because this is the largest set of incursions by the israelis in 20 years, and

when i was nato commander, i was also in charge of u.s./israeli military engagement and spent a lot of time studying this, and the israelis use low-level kind of incursions, and this was not that, and this was a sweep into the west bank. to your point, i agree, part of this is netanyahu and his domestic problems. he knows these kinds of actions play very well with the right side of his coalition, which he needs to stay in power. i don't think you will see a sudden pullback from this. this is not mowing the lawn, an expression the israelis use about repetitive incursions, and this was a very specific

operation. and we are very close to israel, obviously, but the israelis are fiercely independently minded with this issue and will go their own way here. >> peter, can you speak a little bit about what is going on in the larger context of the middle east and the arab nations, vis-a-vis what netanyahu is doing in these refugee camps. we have seen efforts by saudi arabia and the uae, and what do you sense the reaction will be in the rest of the arab world to netanyahu doing this for his own political purposes? >> if i could respectfully disagree that the u.s. has no cards to play. we fund this.

we give the israelis $3.8 billion in unconditional military aid a year, and we protect israel at the united nations from any meaningful condemnation, and we protect them from prosecution from the international criminal court. the u.s. has a tremendous amount of leverage here. it's just the biden administration has chosen not to do it, to protect palestinian rights. i do think this will slow the momentum towards normalization with saudi arabia, but in the longer term, even if israel does get what it wants, which is normalization with saudi arabia, it's with the israelis. when you hold people under a system of violence, they will spopd with violence and

everybody will suffer. >> you highlight a few examples in your piece in the "new york times," and cuba was -- china was operating a spy base in cuba, and there's a lot of warm words as we are used to hearing towards putin. how did we get here? where do we think this happens? is it a global rejection from a significant portion of the globe, a rejection of american values? >> my point is america made this happen, that this alliance between china and cuba with china now having a spy base in cuba, and russia and iran, and iran building drones for russia did not come about by accident,

it came about because the u.s. sperned relations. cuba was wanting closer ties with us and europe, and trump came in and imposed the toughest sanctions on cuba, and they made them desperate for chinese money, and the iranians wanted better relations for the u.s., not because they love us or want to become a democracy, but because they wanted western investment, and trump came in and imposed tougher sanctions and the u.s. lost any leverage it might have had over the iranian and russia relationship. >> admiral, what is your sense of this china/cuba/iran and you can add a few other countries to

that in the way they may be working together and joining forces as peter puts it? >> i think it's real, certainly. it's real in different ways, in different capitals. i think one way to think of this from the chinese perspective, they look at russia which is failing as a state in so many different ways. it has a huge vast land area, russia to the east of the euro mountains, and it's the size of the continent of the united states, and it's basically empty, and maybe 25 million people live there. what is there? oil, gas, timber, gold, diamonds, and it looks really good. it looks to the chinese the way a rib eye steak looks to my dog. yes, china will make them a partner in this group of

nations. i think peter is correct to focus on we need to be self aware and in particular india is where, in my view, we still have trade space. it's unlikely we will convince china to change course, or russia to change course, and iran, maybe over time, but the ball here diplomatically for the united states is still india. we could work with india in positive ways if we are self aware of how we operate in the larger world. last thought. we should not understate the immense power of america's alliances around the world. yes, we highlighted a few that stand against us. look at nato, 32 nations and 55% of the world's gdp, and throw in

japan, south korea and australia. >> you can read peter's new piece in the "new york times." thank you so much, peter. and admiral, thank you. around the fourth of july, thank you again for what you have done for the country. good to see you. what the biden administration is saying after a small bag of suspected cocaine was found in the white house. more on that investigation when "morning joe" comes right back. more shopping?

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ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the united states senator, lindsay graham. thank you. thank you all for coming. thank you very very much. thank you, thank you. . >> you know, you can make mistakes on occasion, even lindsey down here, senator lindsey graham, we're going to love him. we're going to love him. i know, it's half and half. but when i need some of those liberal votes, he's always there to help me get them. okay. we've got some pretty liberal people, but he's good. he's there when you need him. i'm going to get him

straightened -- >> south carolina senator lindsey graham in his home state booed mercilessly over the weekend by a crowd of republicans with donald trump there doing very little to defend him, and goaded them into booing more. that's what he gets in return for it. he went out for a brief moment on january 6th and said i'm done with donald trump, bumps into people at the airport in washington calling him traitors, and he immediately flips. he has been on tv the last few months weeping for people to give money to donald trump's campaign, and this is what he gets in return. you know the man. you worked alongside him. humiliation seems like an understatement. >> i don't think humiliation is a strong enough word.

keep in context here, this is his hometown. >> yeah. >> this is a small town. he lives 15 miles away. and this is not -- these are supposed to be his people. now, one thing it does show is i do believe there are probably a lot of people, and i've met these people who travel around the country just to see donald trump. it's a little bit like the grateful dead for people who are weird. they go on the road to see donald trump. so i would, in lindsey's defense, there's probably a good chunk of the audience that's not south carolina, but the humiliation here is not what the crowd did, it's what donald trump did. he treated him like he was a piece of dirt under his shoe. and i've got a real shot to lindsey, lindsey, it's not working. you cannot put aside your convictions and your character

to support this man. it will not work. he knows this guy is trouble to the united states of america, and another place he split with trump is over ukraine. so lindsey, find yourself in this moment. use this as a teaching moment. you need to be lindsey, not some embarrassing sycophant that has attached yourself like a leach to the side of this man, i would say, to the backside of this man, and it is just beyond sad and depressing, and if it wasn't lindsey's own fault, it's his fault, so i can't feel sorry for him, but he doesn't appear ready or willing or capable of correcting this problem. >> it's hard to imagine him leaving donald trump at this point, but as you say, that was in picken, south carolina, not far from lindsey graham's hometown in his home state, that should be his crowd, and going on tv and literally weeping for

donald trump is not even enough there. so why do you sell your soul? it remains one of the great mysteries of our modern politics. claire, thank you so much. coming up, twitter is facing a new challenger in the social media space, courtesy of mark zuckerberg. the new platform is called threads. and it could pose real problems for elon musk. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin joins us with new details straight ahead on "morning joe." 2024 is the most important election in my lifetime. america literally is as stake as we know it, i'm sorry i'm so upset, but please help president trump, if you can afford 5 or 10 bucks. if you can't afford a dollar, fine, just pray. make sure you vote as early as you can in your state. don't risk anything anymore, vote as soon as you can, pray for this country. pray for this president, and if you've got any money to give, give it. got any money to give,

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it is disgusting the lack of proper gun legislation we have in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. it is time for everybody in our legislature, including the ones who would like to walk around with an ar-15 lapel pin. it is time for every one of them to face the voters, and if they're not going to do something, the voters are going to have to vote them out. that's what that lapel pin means, vote me out, i am against

you, and i am against your safety, and a lot of us have had enough of it. >> that is philadelphia's district attorney yesterday calling out legislators in his own state of pennsylvania after a mass shooting in philly on monday night. that shooting just one of several taking place over the long holiday weekend. welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe." 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. in the east, i'm willie geist. the bbc's katty kay still with us for the hour, and we are learning some new details this morning about that deadly mass shooting in philadelphia on monday night, as investigators work to uncover a motive. seven people were shot. five of them died. this morning, police say they are confident they do have the person responsible now in custody. let's go live to philadelphia and nbc news correspondent george solis. george, officials there spoke to the public yesterday. what did they say, and what are we learning about this suspect this morning? >> reporter: good morning, willie, a lot of outrage from city officials calling the

shooting abhorrent, saying it will not be tolerated in the city of philadelphia. that 40-year-old suspect in custody. that suspect in court this morning for the arraignment where multiple charges are expected to be announced including aggravated assault, and for the murder charges of those five individuals whose lives were lost. >> a community reeling in disbelief, after a wild shootout in philadelphia, the night before independence day. five people killed, including one teen, his mother speaking out, addressing the shooter. >> you shot towards children, and innocent children that had nothing to do with anything, and my son happened to be one of the people that got killed. i hope you get everything you deserve. >> also among the injured, twin toddler, one shot in the leg, the other injured by shattered glass as they sat in their mother's car. this morning, police say the suspect responsible for the chaos is behind bars pending charges. >> such an act of violence is

abhorrent and goes against everything we stand for in this community. >> reporter: traffic camera footage appearing to show a person dressed in all black with a rifle. police confirming this video is part of their investigation. on monday night when police arrived at the scene, the gunman was still firing. >> on what was supposed to be a beautiful summer evening, this armed and armored individual wreaked havoc. >> reporter: officers worked quickly to scoop victims to safety while pursuing the suspect into an alleyway where they were taken into custody. >> based on limited information i have we do not see a basis for concluding that that person's discharge of a firearm was illegal. >> reporter: the shooting, just one of a terribly violent stretch of days on this holiday week. deadly gunfire broke out monday night in fort worth, texas, and wichita, kansas, and a mass shooting sunday in baltimore at a block party, injuring 28 people and killing two. >> i feel like we're in a war.

why we have guns? why kids have guns? >> reporter: willie, we're learning about that shooting that occurred in d.c. overnight. president biden react to go all the gun violence, calling for more stricter gun control. back here in philadelphia, as i mentioned, that suspect due in court today. official haves not publicly released the name, but the name of a suspect has been circulating now for a day or so. again, we are expecting to learn more about this suspect and the charges within a few moments. willie. >> we're working as well to confirm his identity. as we do that, you mentioned some of the victims. two 2-year-old brothers, twins, little boys, one of them shot in stable condition, and one of them injured by glass. we're talking about toddlers being shot in the streets of an american city. we heard george quickly. we heard from the d.a., the mayor as well. calling for stricter gun legislation. pennsylvania has gun safety laws in place. is there any momentum off the

back of this to push even further in that direction? >> reporter: yeah, today the mayor and district attorney expecting to hold more press conferences calling for stricter gun control. this is a message we put out frequently, we hate to say it during these types of shootings. this is not the only shooting that occurred over the holiday weekend here, and so this message is reiterated time and time again. philadelphia having a number of mass shooting events and a number of shootings that occurred here in the city surpassing homicides almost yearly, 300 plus, so this is a message they echo often and we expect them to react more today. willie. >> all right. nbc's george solis live in philadelphia for us. george, thank you so much. we appreciate it. and katty kay, we heard there in george's piece about the scene in baltimore, another mass shooting there. a city not far from philadelphia, hearing from the grandmother and young brother of a girl named aaliyah, a teenage

girl killed in the streets on the fourth of july week during a time of celebration. you know, we just sort of casually mention two twin toddler boys injured in a mass shooting in america, a teenage girl struck down and killed in a mass shooting in america, and on and on it goes. >> yeah, we had the mayor, in fact, of baltimore on the program on monday, willie, and you could hear the frustration in his voice as he tries to tackle this. he was calling for more action at a federal level. he says this can't just all be on mayors to try and keep their cities safe, that that doesn't work, but there needs to be some kind of federal action. we know from the biden administration, they feel they have done everything that they can, the law permits them to do in terms of executive orders and there is no appetite, it seems on capitol hill, particularly in the house of representatives to do anything, and until politicians in this country feel in the united states feel it is in their electoral interest to

try and implement gun measures that around the world would seem normal and sane and ordinary, then it seems that nothing is going to be done in america, and we're going to have more and more of these young kids getting killed, getting injured, and people losing their children, losing their siblings and more of the heartbreak we had over the weekend. july 4th seems to be a particularly dangerous day in the united states. what an awful way to celebrate something that should be, you know, such a happy occasion. >> and there has been some gun safety legislation progress made in recent years at the state level, but as you say, a lot of states are actually going the other direction, feeling like their rights are being threatened by the movement for more gun safety. in washington this morning, the secret service is investigating how a small amount of suspected cocaine was found inside the white house. on sunday night, employees briefly were evacuated after a white powdery substance was

discovered. let's get details from nbc news senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. what more do we know about this? >> reporter: good morning, willie. this small bag was found by a secret service uniformed officer in a common area where staffers, visitors and even some tourists regularly pass through and leave personal items like their phones or an umbrella before going into other parts of the west wing. that's according to sources familiar with the investigation. a d.c. hazardous materials unit tested the suspect on the grounds and it came back positive for cocaine. that substance is at a lab now for more complete testing. this morning, an unusual who done it in the west wing. according to sources familiar, the secret service is investigating the discovery of a small plastic bag being tested for cocaine. after a preliminary result was positive for the illegal drug. this began sunday night when local authorities were called. after a routine inspection,

found the bag in a common area of the west wing where many staffers and visitors pass through daily. investigators will check cameras and entrance logs to try to determine how the suspected drug was left in a secure area. president biden and his family were away at the time. but home to host a massive summer party on the fourth of july. >> today's america's day. america's day. >> reporter: thousands of visitors on the grounds, and a dazzling display in the sky before those patriotic colors were bursting in air, the campaign trail lit up with republican candidates from the top tier and the less well known. >> asa hutchinson, running for president. >> greeting primary voters in key early states. >> >> reporter: in iowa, mike

pence walked the parade route and a tight rope among the 2020 interference. and whether vice president pence urged ducey. >> i was asked to check in with a few governors but there was no pressure. i was simply gathering information, passing that along. >> reporter: the former president was not on the road, leaving room for his rivals. like florida governor ron desantis in new hampshire. >> each generation's got to step up and be a custodian of freedom. ij i think right now is our generation's time to do that. >> reporter: on the campaign trail, mike pence will be in iowa, part of a ten county tour there on this swing, and getting back to the investigation here at the white house, sources we have been talking to say that it could take several days for the conclusive test on the substance to come back. again, it was a preliminary field test, and now a lab test will confirm if it was, in fact,

cocaine, and then trying to determine who put it in that common space inside a secure area. one of the questions is, although it was found sunday night, they don't know how long it had been there. there are a lot of questions remaining and more work to do for the secret service. willie. >> certainly a bizarre story and the secret service is on it. kelly o'donnell live at the white house, thank you so much. meta, the parent company of facebook and instagram is launching its direct twitter competitor called threads. nbc news correspondent erin mclaughlin has details. >> reporter: hey there, willie, that's right. the app will be available tomorrow and users can link it directly to their instagram account. it's the latest salvo between elon musk and mark zuckerberg. get this, they may physically fight each other. >> the battle of the billionaires after elon musk

recently challenged mark zuckerberg to a potential cage match, and zuckerberg agreed. the two have yet to physically face off, but the source of their dispute, zuckerberg's company meta is now entering the ring to take on twitter. >> i enjoy being doubt. >> reporter: announcing the launch of a direct competitor, threads, the app, which appears to emphasize public conversations much like twitter showing up in apple's app store for users to download on thursday. users will be able to log in using their instagram account. >> meta is the biggest social media company in the world. they can take this to their existing user base and leverage that. >> reporter: the number of users on instagram worldwide, 2 billion, compared to some 300 million on twitter. and buzz is building on social media. >> this is what it's going to look like. it's really cool because you can log in with your instagram user name. >> threads is launching amidst an earthquake at twitter. since elon musk bought the platform last year he's changed

the verification process, charging $8 for whether you check marks, overhauled the layout which determines which tweets users see, and posed limited on how many tweets users can read a day. musk is not moderating his take. it's caused many usrs and advertisers to flee the site. and offering an alternative like blue sky and mastadon, and spill, aim to go serve diverse communities was number four in the free app store on tuesday. now, meta is entering the free. >> the timing could not be more perfect because everyone is pissed off at twitter. >> elon musk has left an opening in the social media landscape, and meta, mark zuckerberg,

always likes an opening. >> reporter: there's concern in the tech world that meta could collect even more personal data from twitter, ranging are financial information to your health and fitness. an expert i spoke to said if they're already using facebook and instagram, the policies will likely be similar. nbc news has reached out to meta and twitter for comment. we have yet to hear. >> thank you so much. let's bring in the coanchor of cnbc's squawk box, andrew ross sorkin, and professor of history at tulane university, walter isaacson. he's working on a biography of elon musk. welcome to both of you. andrew, let me start with you and threads, what do we think it will look like, and how much is this about zuckerberg versus musk, their planned slap fight aside. >> zuckerberg sees this as an opportunity or an opening.

whether it's going to work or not, unclear. probably will do well. it's still an open field, and it's unclear. i don't think anybody really knows whether people will really go for any of these things to work, they need scale. there is a network effect. walter isaacson and i have have talked about this at great length, you need the nedwork effect. you need everyone going there. one of the reasons that blue sky, and the other apps you talked about haven't really gained traction is because there's not enough people on them to create that network effect scale. >> walter, i think a lot of people who think twitter is an absolute mess right now as a user experience, forget the business side of it, will be happy to see some sort of viable alternative to it. you were plugged into the world of elon musk, working on a

biography of him. does he view twitter as a mess or does he think it's going well. >> i think he thinks it's going well in terms of bringing users in. he's been bold in doing things like putting up video and new tweet decks and things, but his great fear has been that twitter would be -- he wants twitter to be a place where left and right and all sorts of people join together. he wants it to be a town inquiry, a civic site, and his great fear is that social media , and different people with different political viewpoints can do what they do on cable tv, talk radio dial, and go to their own corners. what andrew said is you want a place everybody goes so you can have contention. probably not much fun if you're

left or right to be talking to your choir. >> some people seem to be just doing that these days. andrew, talk about the other changes that elon musk has been trying to make to twitter. obviously we had the whole verification system earlier, but then this limit on the number of wall street tweets you can use, 800, although why you'd want to do more than 800 tweets, i don't know. >> he's been out of the box since the very beginning. one of his rationals for buying the company is he wanted to rid the service of bots, and folks scraping data they can use to do generative data. they're looking at the data, and using the data, and the sentences and word structure to propel tools like chatgpt and the like.

he's trying to end that. what he did over the weekend is say we're going to stop that. we're going to limit how much anybody can see this stuff. he's trying to really check the bots and all of the ai problems trying to scrape the data. he said he needed to do that almost out of nowhere to surprise people because if he had done it and told people this is coming next week, those bots and everybody else would have gotten prepared and figured out ways around it. >> go ahead, walter. i think there's an important point that andrew just made. in the era of generative ai, the big fuel is data. now, things like chatgpt 4, or liquor p barred from google. they have trained on data from billions of documents on the internet, but it's not timely, what is the most timely data

screen we have of the hive mind of humanity. that's twitter. a billion tweets a day. what musk said is you're not allowed to change the data to change your ai systems. >> while this is all going on, we have key agencies, officials from the biden administration barred from meeting and communicating with social media companies about content on platforms. a trump appointed judge sided with attorneys general, saying the government went too far in encouraging social media companies to address posts they felt could upend elections. as nbc news puts it in its report, the ruling said government agencies like the department of health and human services and fbi could not talk to social media companies for quote the purpose of encouraging, pressuring or

inducing the removal, deletion, suppression of reduction of content containing protected free speech. nbc news reached out to meta, twitter and alphabet for comment but did not hear back. so what does this mean as a practical question. what was the government doing with social media companies to get the right information out to people, correct information that it no longer can do. >> in the short period it means if someone from the white house wants to call up twitter or call up instagram or you tube and say we see this video, we see this comment, we think it's wrong. we would like you to take it down if possible, they can't make that call. it's unclear whether this decision is going to hold. there's a distinction between encouraging or pressure or coercion on the other side and

walter and i happened to just talk about this recently, there's an issue encouraging all of us, journalists, news organizations, all sorts of companies get calls from people in the white house, people in congress, all sorts of people trying to spin, play the ref. that has been going on forever. the question is if you're coercing them, pressuring them, if you don't there's going to be retribution. that may be illegal. the idea of folks just encouraging folks to do one thing or the other, that would be in the category of free speech, not just for the public to have free speech but for members of the administration to have free speech, and i would say this, by the way, is an apolitical issue to a large degree because those working the reves in social media land were from the biden administration and trump administration earlier. >> you're right.

and i think the judge's decision goes too far. we're in the press, we're used to people from the government saying, hey, don't print that. but what the twitter file showed, and in my book, i talked about the night after night they're releasing these files. it went a bit far. it wasn't just government saying don't print things or amplify things about the for say, the barrington document that talks about the spread of covid. it was coercing a bit, and what was worse, the social media companies didn't just play along. they colluded and tried to stop some of the flow of information. this is a corrective. i feel that in the end the decision will be refined somewhat. government has to have the right to have its own free speech when they push back to see things on social media that they think are dangerous. >> and the government would argue we were just colluding if

you want to put it that way to stop bad information from getting into the hands of people and threatening their well being. andrew ross sorkin, thank you so much, we appreciate it. vladimir putin returns to the world stage since the short lived revolt in his country. it comes amid a new report that china as warned the russian leader not to use nuclear weapons in the war with ukraine. new details next on "morning joe." with ukraine. new details next on "morning joe.

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for the first time since the wagner group's revolt, vladimir putin met virtually with the leaders of india and china as ukraine continues its counter offensive against putin's forces. nbc news correspondent kelly cobiella has the latest from central ukraine. >> reporter: the russian president vladimir putin front and center again on the world stage, and domestically. he attended a virtual summit with the leaders of china and

india. at this summit he tried to project this image of strength and unity in russia. he said the sanctions have made his country stronger. he said russia has never been more united and just a short time later, the kremlin released video of the president in his kremlin office with a young girl, kissing her on the head, smiling, laughing, trying to project to message of putin as a man who's not only strong but also still loved by his people, still popular. all of this, of course, eleven days after that attempted mutiny. >> wagner head yevgeny prigozhin has not been seen publicly since the rebellion. in a voice message that appears to be from prigozhin, a man who sounds like him says the march on moscow was aimed at fighting traitors, while hinting at his group's next move.

in the near future, people will see our next victories at the front. it's not possible for nbc news to authenticate the audio message. ukraine now a month into its counter offensive against the russians claiming progress is being made. a top national security official tweeting ukrainian troops are achieving their main tasks, including the maximum destruction of equipment, artillery and manpower. ukraine is also suffering losses. 43-year-old who didn't want his name used. he told me his unit made it past russian defenses when the enemy jammed communications. the russians encircled us, he says and we successfully repelled attack, but when he a lot of wounded guys. we knew they wouldn't survive long like this, so we pulled back. in the midst of all of this, there is also this news from

moscow, hints of a possible prisoner swap to free the jailed detained reporter, "wall street journal" journalist evan gersh gershkovich, the kremlin spokesperson said there were contacts with the united states, but he wanted to keep the contacts secret. he has been detained, charges that washington, his employer have denied. the state department has repeatedly called for his release. the state department said they wouldn't comment on any details of possible negotiations. >> nbc's kelly cobiella reporting from ukraine. thank you. chinese president xi jinping reportedly personally warned vladimir putin against using nuclear weapons in ukraine. western and chinese officials tell "the financial times" the message was delivered

face-to-face during the chinese leader's state visit to moscow in march. the paper reports quote, since then, chinese officials have privately taken credit for convincing the russian president to back down from his veiled threats of using a nuclear weapon against ukraine, the people said. the ft goes on to write, xi's warning is giving people hope that china is backing up public rhetoric behind closed doors, and potentially threatening consequences for the relationship that would be sufficient to stop putin from using a nuclear weapon. neither china's ministry or foreign affairs. >> pretty low bar if we're just convincing vladimir putin not to nuke ukraine in this war. a lot of people hoping china and president xi can lean on putin strongly to somehow find a way out of this. >> china is going to be watching russia very closely, and watching the kind of position that putin is in, watching the counter offensive from the ukrainians to see how strong the

russian partner is. it's good they have leaned on the russians not to attempt some kind of nuclear retaliation. china also in a position it wants to show the rest of the world it is a negotiator, the brazilians, south africans, they have a role of a global power b they are some kind of an alternative to the united states. in a way, the ukraine situation in their relationship with russia is giving them some of that. walter, you know, when you look at what's happening in ukraine, and you look at the election that's kind of kicking off over the course of the weekend and the united states, how do you see ukraine factoring in to the republican party's debates if at all? we seem to be seeing a republican party returning to the days of isolationism. is that too simplistic or where the debate is going to be carried out on who can be more

isolationist than the other person. >> i think you're seeing a split in the republican party over this issue. and, no, there's an isolationist wing, but also a wing, everyone from lindsey graham to mitch mcconnell who's in favor of this war. i think more importantly, you're starting to see the possibilities of an end to this war. you see cia director bill burns going to kyiv and figuring out what the end game could be. antony blinken, the secretary of state had a good trip to chin where he welcomed china's involvement in diplomacy on ukraine, and then you see china doing its warning instead of standing arm in arm with russia. in some ways, after this offensive winds down, you're not going to have ukraine recapturing crimea. you're not going to have russia taking kyiv, and you're going to have to have at least a cease fire, and i suspect this may

happen in the next few months. >> let's hope it does. meanwhile, in the middle east, the israeli government says it has intercepted five rockets that were fired from the gaza strip. this just hours after israel wrapped up a two-day large-scale military raid in the west bank city of jenin. 12 people died in the attack. 120 others were injured. after the israeli defense forces announced an attack from the gaza strip this morning, israel sent fighter jets to hit what it claims were underground weapons and raw materials for rockets that belong to the militant islamic group hamas. no injuries have been reported so far from that attack. coming up here, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, a rash of suspected shark attacks as the summer beach season begins to hit its stride. they are rare, but they are happening across the country this summer. nbc's sam brock brings us a live

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that is seattle as the sun comes up at 6:37 in the morning out west. 9:37 here in the east. the number of shark encounters and sightings have been reported this week from the east coast down to the gulf. in the past two days, there have been five suspected shark attacks off the shores of new york's long island alone. joining us from miami beach, florida, nbc news correspondent sam brock. we know shark attacks are extremely rare in the grand scheme of things, but that doesn't make these any less traumatic for the people who suffer them. >> reporter: certainly doesn't make people feel better. we know there's been a spade of sightings, new york and florida. you would think someone would say to the sharks, it's a holiday weekend, you guys can take a break. they're not taking a break.

navar beach, out near pensacola, there is a shark weaving its way through swimmers as people on the shore are screaming to get out of the water. we saw a trio of attacks on long island on july 4th. that is five now in just two days. >> shark sightings along the east coast sending shock waves. a familiar scene in florida, a shark in the pensacola area darted around swimmers as folks were screaming get out of the water. >> looks like we've got a hammer head shark. >> reporter: another fish, a hammer head seen crashing independence day celebrations, swimming feet from the busy shore, and farther north, three suspected attacks as people packed the beaches of long island for the holiday. >> be advised, confirmed shark bite. >> reporter: officials say two men in their 40s and a 50-year-old woman are the latest

victims from separate shark bite incidents. all three were treated for nonlife threatening injuries. hours earlier, new york state park officials temporarily closed a nearby beach to swimmers after spotting a school of sand tiger sharks in the water. this 40 mile stretch of long island's coastline the site of five suspected shark attacks in two days. that comes less than a week after another close encounter with paddle borders and a hammer head in the waters between the bahamas and florida. all of them peaking paranoia for beachgoers. >> that's a great white, and i don't know, trying to enjoy my day, but i can't. >> reporter: despite the rise in fears. >> i don't go more than up to my waist because of all the sharks. >> reporter: unprovoked shark attacks are incredibly rare, according to the university of florida's shark attack, fatal and nonfatal shark bites are

less common than they have been in the past. those running the parks in new york say more sharks have been swimming closer to shore, putting life guards on high alert, raising red flags on how to prevent a potentially perilous attack. new york governor kathy hochul has been deploying drones to spot the sharks. we mentioned the numbers, last year, eight in new york. historically, the state had 12 prior to that. importantly there's something in the water off of long island. willie. >> all right. nbc's sam brock in miami for us. sam, thank you so much. we will take a look at some of the morning papers across the country when we come right back on "morning joe." the country when we come right back on "morning joe.

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a live picture of los angeles, 6:45 in the morning. 9:45 here in the east. from the gun violence epidemic to the impact of social media, our next guest says we're in the midst of the decline of american childhood. veteran journalist and historian todd brewster joins us with his new book, a collection of hundred of archival photos that tell the stories of the country's youth. good morning, thanks for bringing this book to us. explain a little bit of some of the photographs inside, the idea that the united states in some ways created the concept of childhood, and as you put it in the book is now presiding over its demise. >> thanks for having me on. this is an idea i came up with as i began to investigate the idea of what experience has been

for children in american history, and, you know, we're the first in the nation, and therefore we are the first experiment in sort of providing the dignity of the self and the growth of the self and the notion that each of us has something to contribute to our historical times, and so when you think about that, and you think about the notion that childhood is a period of our development, the notion that there's a separate period that nurtures that childhood expression was distinctively american. >> so let's take a look at some of the photographs inside. the first one we're going to put on the screen is titled messenger boy, what are we looking at here? >> well, you know, in late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a lot of focus on child labor, factories, in particular, this boy, he's not in the factory but works for western union delivering messages.

and it's a wonderful photograph taken by lewis hein, you may be familiar with the photographs, mostly in factories, and hein wrote on the caption sheet that he smokes, drinks and visits houses of prostitution. you may wonder how is that part of the nurturing of childhood. the focus on child labor that focused attention on what we were doing to our children by putting them in the factories shows our attention to try to protect that nurturing period. only about 7% of teenagers in the late 19th century actually attended school. the rest of them were working in factories or on farms. >> and as you say, living hard already. let's look at another photograph. kids mimicking beatles abby road, what are we seeing here? >> this is a fairly recent

photographer, the photographer julie blackmon was shot in and watching the beatles documentary that a lot of people were watching during that time, and her niece came over and said that she was going to go out and sell some girl scout cookies, and the kids had an idea. they remembered this crosswalk here that mimicked the image seen on the cover of abby road, so they went out and did it. something about the sense of wonder and creativity that children have, that often gets drained out of them by the time they become adults and how important that has been, the book focused on how important that's been in american history, the great inventions, innovations, great cultural achievements were originally the sparks of childhood imagination. when i speak about the dangers of social media and gun violence and bringing adult worries into the childhood, that's something we're sacrificing is that moment of specialist, that protected period that children are able

to, their minds are able to come up with the ideas that turn out to drive our culture, and in some cases our businesses and our success. >> this next one is really striking. you spend a lot of time kind of looking at each face in the photograph from an orphanage. what's the context for this an one. it's an orphanage in baltimore run by the old late sisters. the orphanage was started in the early -- as a school in the early 19th century for african american children, when the children were not allowed -- black children were not allowed to be educated. it later became also an orphanage of the civil war since so many children lost their parents. this picture's from 1910. the children who were wearing the aprons there, all of them are all orphans. you'll notice something interesting, several of them have dolls, but they're white dolls, and you can see, therefore, kind of the image of

racism in a picture that's really ostensibly just a class picture of orphans. >> todd, i remember when you did our century with peter jennings. it was very much a photograph-driven book, and you've done that here too. but i have a more substantive question. the birthrate is declining radically in america. what does that say to you? >> well, you know, that's a very interesting question. i haven't been asked that one before. i would say that it's -- i guess what i would say, the concern i would have is that there's a lack of optimism. we noticed the birthrate drop in europe, for instance, after the second world war and plenty of reason to feel less optimistic about the future in europe at that time as well. and i would say that that's a discouraging sign too. i know there's a lot of people, young people who are now either putting off having children or deciding they're not going to have children at all, and in large part because of fear about the future, about the climate

change, about the -- where we're headed as a country, which is very depressing when you think about it. we've been a child-centered nation, some of that kind of optimism and enthusiasm that we embrace as part of the american personality i think is our sort of childishness that we put center to the american idea, and so i'm worried about that. and i think the book focuses on how important it's been to emphasize children throughout american history, what they've meant to us, will we be a different america if we don't have that child-centered focus? >> it's interesting you say that because obviously america is still held up -- >> i can't quite hear you. >> i don't think i've ever lived in a country where children are at the center of education as much as they are in the united states, certainly compared to, you know, where i come from in great britain or places i've lived in asia, and it's interesting to hear you think they're losing that.

i just want to throw out the photo of children, babies testing food because this one intrigued me when i looked at this. is this like they're testing it for mass consumption purposes or are they just having a fun time testing cakes? >> this is your photograph from look magazine. a lot of these are from the library of congress collection, which i mined very carefully for images of children. this was shot by charles rothstein, a very wonderful photographer. gerber, i believe it was, was testing out new dishes for babies, and they were trying new flavors and new combinations in order to make the child's diet a little more varied, and so look magazine had the idea of maybe portraying that by looking at -- creating a picture here with children who were all in a kind of testing lab here trying out different foods.

now, it's a cute picture, very interesting, and i think look, which was a wonderfully inventive magazine had a great idea in doing it. but it also shows how children are sometimes used as sort of props for our businesses and, you know, a lot of the 20th century was the exploitation of children in show business and in other avenues that, you know, raises concerns about were we appreciating children for their childhood specialness or whether we're exploiting it. >> that is a great shot. the new book is called "american childhood: a photographic history." there are more than 200 photos inside. thank you for being here this morning. >> thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> and we'll be right back with more "morning joe." t back with more "morning joe.

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out west, hours after mike trout was placed on the injured list with a broken left wrist, now two-way superstar shohei ohtani could not complete his start on the mound. after surrendering back-to-back home runs for the first time in his career, ohtani left the game with a blister on the middle finger of his throwing hand. he says he no longer plans to pitch in next week's all star game. we hope we get to see him hit. third baseman anthony rendon left after a shin contusion after fouling a ball off his leg. that is painful. some of the best players not only in baseball now but ever going down for the angels. a quick look at a couple of the morning papers. in florida, the bradenton herald has a front page feature of the immigration law that went into effect. hospitals that accept medicaid must ask patients about their immigration status.

the state says the patients' response will not affect their care or result in a report of their status to immigration officials. the law does not apply to private doctors' offices or community health centers. in ohio, the canton repository leads with a bipartisan push to address a national shortage of police officers. lawmakers in the house introduced a federal bill that would allow police departments to use grants for recruitment and retention bonuses. the bill has been endorsed by the small and rural law enforcement executives association. and that does it for us this morning. we'll see you right back here tomorrow morning, same time. ryan nobles picks up the coverage right now. ♪♪ thank you, willie. it is 10:00 a.m. eastern, i'm ryan nobles reporting from washington in today for ana cabrera. and moments ago, the man suspected of shooting and killing five people in philadelphia made his first appearance. that city's still rli